Shares trade with small losses; breadth negative

Equity indices traded sideways with small losses in mid-afternoon trade. The Nifty continued to hover near 10,400 level. At 11:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 85.38 points or 0.24% at 35,549.57. The Nifty 50 index was down 43.55 points or 0.42% at 10,407.90.

The broader market traded lower. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.79% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.35%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 892 shares rose and 1182 shares fell. A total of 122 shares were unchanged. In Nifty 50 index, 13 stocks advanced while 37 stocks declined.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty IT declined 1.62% to 14,613.85, extending its losing streak to third trading session. The IT index has slumped 7.92% in three days from its previous closing high of 15871.35 posted on 5 March 2020.

IT stocks came under bear clutch after rupee appreciated in foreign exchange market. In the foreign exchange market, the rupee edged higher against the dollar. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 73.99, compared with its close of 74.17 during the previous trading session.

Wipro (down 1.05%), HCL Technologies (down 1.34%), NIIT Technologies (down 1.54%), MphasiS (down 1.78%), MindTree (down 1.88%), Infosys (down 2.86%) and Hexaware Technologies (down 4.23%) were top losers in IT space.

TCS was down 0.67%. The company declared an interim dividend of Rs 12 per equity share with a record date of 20 March 2020.

Stocks in Spotlight:

RBL Bank jumped 10.49% to Rs 229.60 after the bank clarified that the bank is well capitalized, financial strong and boasts a healthy liquidity ratio. The bank said it has capital adequacy ratio of 16.08% with Tier-1 at 15.02% which is significantly higher than the prescribed regulatory requirement at 11.5% and 9.5% respectively. The bank also said there has been no material adverse change in the asset quality since Q3 December 2019 and the bank's growth guidance remains consistent.

Shares of Welspun Corp were down 10.09% at Rs 111.85. The company announced that it has secured a major offshore pipes supply contract in Australia for the Barossa offshore Development project from Allseas Marine Contractors Australia PTY. The contract scope comprises manufacturing & supply of 270 km (87 KMT) pipes for critical offshore application.

Narayana Hrudayalaya (NHL) fell 1.69%. NHL on Monday (9 March 2020) informed stock exchanges that it will stop operating Chinmaya Narayana Superspeciality Centre in Bangalore from 1 April 2020. The Bangalore unit contributed around 0.4% (Rs 12.50 crore) to the group revenue and 0.6% to group EBITDA (Rs 2.30 crore) in FY 2019-20, Narayana Hrudayalaya notified after the trading hours on Monday, 9 March 2020.

Global Markets:

Most Asian markets were trading lower on Wednesday as doubts regarding the US stimulus package dragged down equities and US stock futures.

In US, stocks closed sharply higher on Tuesday after a volatile session that restored about half of the losses seen Monday when stocks saw the biggest one day fall since the 2008 financial crisis.

Tuesday's rebound was partly fueled by a White House push to persuade Congress to agree to a fiscal stimulus package that may include a payroll tax cut to mitigate the economic impact of the COVID-19 epidemic.

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