Sensex down 100 pts; Nifty below 17,700

The domestic equity benchmarks traded with small losses in the afternoon trade. The Nifty traded below the 17,700 level. Oil & gas, auto and FMCG stocks advanced while consumer durables, realty and healthcare stocks declined.

At 13:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 100.43 points or 0.17% to 60,124.03. The Nifty 50 index lost 30.20 points or 0.17% to 17,681.25.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.17% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.08%.

The market breadth was almost even. On the BSE, 1,680 shares rose and 1,695 shares fell. A total of 125 shares were unchanged.

Investor sentiment nosedived after Fed Chair Jerome Powell's stated that the central bank will likely need to raise interest rates for a longer period. He said that the Fed is all set to take larger rate hikes following strong economic data and will likely move in larger steps if future economic data indicates tougher measures to control inflation. This would mark a reversal of the central bank's actions over the last two meetings when it trimmed the size of its rate hikes from 75 basis points to 25 basis points.

Gainers and Losers:

IndusInd Bank (up 3.13%), Adani Enterprises (up 2.12%), Bajaj Auto (up 1.86%), Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (up 1.45%) and Larsen & Toubro (up 1.12%) were major Nifty gainers.

Bajaj Finance (down 2.20%), Hindalco Industries (down 1.75%), Infosys (down 1.33%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (down 1.32%) and Titan Company (down 1.04%) were were top Nifty losers.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Shares of seven Adani Group edged higher in trade after the Adani Group said its promoters have prepaid share backed financing of Rs 7,374 crore ahead of its latest maturity in April 2025.

A total of 23.3 crore shares will be released as part of the latest prepayment, the conglomerate said on Tuesday (7 March 2023). Along with the repayments done earlier in the month of February, Adani has prepaid $2,016 million of share backed financing, which is consistent with promoters' commitment to prepay all share backed financing before 31 March 2023.

Adani Enterprises (up 2.12%) and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (up 1.45%) advanced. Concurrently, Adani Wilmar, Adani Total Gas, Adani Green Energy, Adani Transmission and Adani Power were up 5% each.

Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) jumped 5.98% while Larsen & Toubro (L&T) added 1.19%. The Union Ministry of Defence on Tuesday signed two separate contracts with state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Larsen & Toubro for 70 Hindustan Turbo Trainer-40 (HTT-40) basic trainer aircraft and three cadet training ships, respectively, at a cumulative cost of Rs 9,900 crore.

Natco Pharma rose 0.58% after the pharma company announced that its board has approved a share buyback of upto Rs 210 crore at a price not exceeding Rs 700 per equity share through open market route.

Ajanta Pharma added 2.72%. The drug maker's board will consider a share buyback on 10 March 2023.

Global markets:

Shares in Europe and Asia were trading lower on Wednesday, after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Tuesday cautioned that interest rates may need to be higher than expected.

Japan's seasonally adjusted current account balance rose to 216.3 billion yen ($1.57 billion) in January, government data showed on Wednesday. The surplus in balance saw a sharp drop from December's balance of 1.18 trillion yen and November's balance of 1.92 trillion yen.

China on Tuesday saw exports fall by 6.8% in February in U.S. dollar terms and imports also declined 10.2%.

Overnight in the US, major stock indexes declined following Fed Chair Powell cautioning lawmakers that the central bank's terminal rate will likely be higher than previously anticipated due to stubbornly high economic data in recent weeks. Powell was on Capitol Hill Tuesday for the first part of his two-day semiannual monetary policy testimony before Congress.

The Dow Jones closed nearly 575 points lower and turned negative for 2023. The S&P 500 slid 1.53% to close below the key 4,000 threshold, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 1.25%. The sharp decline for stocks was accompanied by a spike in bond yields, with the rate on the 2-year Treasury surpassing 5% and touching the highest level since 2007.

Crude oil prices tumbled on fears of rate hike, weak Chinese data and strengthening dollar. Brent crude for May 2023 settlement lost 38 cents or 0.46% to $82.91 a barrel.

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