Negative market breadth; auto stocks skid

The main equity indices languished near the day's low in mid-morning trade. Auto stocks witnessed selling pressure. The Nifty hovered around its 100 days simple moving average placed at 11,956.77. At 11:30 IST, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 427.53 points or 1.04% at 40,742.59. The Nifty 50 index was down 131.65 points or 1.09% at 11,949.20.

The selling was broad based. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.35% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.35%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 804 shares rose and 1316 shares fell. A total of 153 shares were unchanged. In Nifty 50 index, 10 stocks advanced while 40 stocks declined.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Auto index slumped 1.7% to 7,566.85, reacting to the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA)'s auto retail sales data for January 2020 released after market hours on 20 February 2020.

Eicher Motors (down 2.31%), Tata Motors (down 2.18%), Maruti Suzuki India (down 2.13%), JBM Auto (down 2.1%), Hero MotoCorp (down 1.6%), SML Isuzu (down 1.33%), Mahindra & Mahindra (down 1.22%), Bajaj Auto (down 1.2%) and TVS Motor Company (down 0.46%) were top losers in auto segment.

Total vehicle registration fell 7.17% to 17,50,116 units January 2020 as against 18,85,253 units in January 2019. Passenger vehicle registration declined 4.61% to 2,90,879 units on year-on-year (YoY) basis. Two-wheeler sales stood at 12,67,366 units in January 2020 as against 13,89,951 units in January 2019, registering a decline of 8.9%. Commercial vehicle (CV) space recorded a decline of 6.9% on YoY basis. CV registrations for January 2020 stood at 82,187 units as against 88,271 units in January 2019. Three-wheeler segment witnessed a 9.17% growth to 63,514 units in January 2020 as against 58,178 in January 2019.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Yes Bank (down 0.28%) is banned from trading in NSE's F&O segment for today after the security crossed 95% of market wide position limit.

Astrazeneca Pharma India gained 0.96% to Rs 2,829 after the company said it has launched "QTERN" tablets in India for the treatment of diabetes. Following the receipt of marketing authorization from the Drugs Controller General of India for fixed-dose combination (FDC) of Dapagliflozin 10mg + Saxagliptin 5mg film coated tablets (QTERN), AstraZeneca Pharma India has commenced the launch of QTERN in India. QTERN is a prescription medicine that contains dapagliflozin and saxagliptin. QTERN is used with diet and exercise to improve blood sugar (glucose) control in adults with type 2 diabetes. The disclosure was made after market hours on Thursday, 20 February 2020.

Bharti Infratel rose 1.11% to Rs 228.60 after the company said it has received Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) approval for its proposed merger with Indus Towers. The company in a regulatory filing said, "Please be informed that FDI approval for merger of Indus Towers with Bharti Infratel has been received late evening yesterday (21 Feb). Bharti Infratel's board will meet on Monday (24 February) to take stock and decide the future course of action.

Axis Bank, Max Financial Services and its subsidiary Max Life Insurance Company on Thursday (20 February) signed a confidentiality and exclusivity arrangement to explore the possibility of the private lender entering into a long-term strategic partnership with Max Life. Max Life is currently the largest non-bank owned private life insurer in India. Max Financial Services presently holds a 72.5% stake in Max Life while Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance and Axis Bank hold 25.5% and 2% stake, respectively. Axis Bank and Max Life have had a successful bancassurace (banca) arrangement for nearly a decade. The new premium generated through this banca arrangement has aggregated to over Rs 12,000 crore over this period, while maintaining high persistency. Both companies have invested extensively in product and need-based sales training, thereby leading to consistent increase in productivity.

Shares of Max Financial Services surged 4.12% to Rs 588.35 while Axis Bank fell 1.27% to Rs 734.5.

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