Nifty hovers below 17,250; auto stocks rally

Equity indices traded sideways with modest losses in early afternoon trade. The Nifty was trading below 17,250 level. Pharma, IT and realty shares saw selling pressure while auto stocks bucked weak market trend.

At 12:23 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, dropped 262.15 points or 0.45% at 57,854.94. The Nifty 50 index lost 78.60 points or 0.45% at 17,246.60.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.29% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.28%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 1,856 shares rose and 1,361 shares fell. A total of 137 shares were unchanged.

The U.S. Congress on Tuesday approved raising the federal government's debt limit by $2.5 trillion, to about $31.4 trillion. The House voted 221-209 to send the measure to President Joe Biden to sign and avert default before the end of the year.

Economy:

India's merchandise exports jumped 27.16% to $30.04 billion in November 2021 on the back of good performance by sectors like petroleum products, engineering goods and electronic items, official data showed on Tuesday. The exports stood at $23.62 billion in November 2020. Imports in November 2021 were at $52.94 billion, recording an increase of 56.58% over inbound shipments of $33.81 billion in November 2020.

Derivatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, rose 1.5% to 17.2075. The Nifty 30 December 2021 futures were trading at 17,270.60, at a premium of 30 points as compared with the spot at 17,240.60

The Nifty option chain for 30 December 2021 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 37.5 lakh contracts at the 18,000 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 53.9 lakh contracts was seen at 17,000 strike price.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Auto index gained 0.55% to 11,032.60, snapping its two day losing streak. The index declined nearly 1% in the past two days.

TVS Motor Company (up 6.54%), Mahindra & Mahindra (up 1.03%), Eicher Motor (up 0.7%), Maruti Suzuki (up 0.65%) and Bajaj Auto (up 0.65%) were top gainers in auto space.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Sarda Energy Minerals jumped 4.45% to Rs 801.35 after the mining company announced commencement of operations at Gare Palma IV/7 coal mine at Raigarh. The mining company informed that it received all required approvals and subsequently started operations at Gare Palma IV/7 coal mines at Raigarh. The coal from the said mine shall be used for captive consumption as well as commercial sale.

Precision Wires India rose 6.69% to Rs 378.20 after the company fixed 23 December 2021, as the record date for the proposed 5-for-1 stock split. Precision Wires India will split each equity share of face value Rs 5 each into five equity shares of Re 1 each fully paid.

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