Shares extend early losses; IT stocks drag

The benchmark indices extended early losses in morning trade amid negative global cues. The Nifty fell below 17,250 mark, dragged by IT and pharma shares.

At 10:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, dropped 265.15 points or 0.46% at 57,851.94. The Nifty 50 index lost 77.30 points or 0.45% at 17,247.60.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.06% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.22%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 1,835 shares rose and 1,197 shares fell. A total of 127 shares were unchanged.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 763.18 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net buyers to the tune of Rs 425.43 crore in the Indian equity market on 14 December 2021, provisional data showed.

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.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty IT index fell 1.33% to 35,621.75. The index gained 0.45% in the past two trading sessions.

Coforge (down 1.96%), Mphasis (down 1.78%), MindTree (down 1.51%), Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) (down 1.48%) and HCL Technologies (down 1.39%) were the top losers in the IT segment.

Meanwhile, NSE Indices, the index services subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE), on 14 December 2021 announced the launch of Nifty India Digital Index to track stocks exposed to the "digital theme."

Stocks in Spotlight:

ITC fell 0.33%. The cigarette major discussed taxation on cigarette business, demerger plans and the strategy for the FMCG business in its first ever investor meet on 14 December 2021. In the investor meet, ITC's top management stressed that the health ministry makes regular recommendations annually, as it tried to allay concerns about higher taxation on its mainstay cigarettes business. The multi-business conglomerate has not given any concrete plan for demerger and listing of businesses to unlock value at its analyst meet, but did not rule out that those are options for the company.

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) rose 0.32%. The water & effluent treatment business of L&T Construction has secured a repeat order from the State Water & Sanitation Mission (SWSM), Uttar Pradesh to implement rural water supply projects providing Functional House Tap Connections (FHTC). The contract is part of the Jal Jeevan Mission. According Larsen & Toubro (L&T)'s classification, the value of 'large' contracts lies between Rs 2,500 crore to Rs 5,000 crore.

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