Benchmarks pare losses; VIX spurts 10.36%

The headline equity benchmarks continued to trim losses in early afternoon trade. The Nifty traded above the key 22,000 level after hitting the day's low of 21,821.05 in mid morning trade. Oil & gas shares decline after advancing in the past trading session.

At 12:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 138.03 points or 0.19% to 72,525.80. The Nifty 50 index lost 29.25 points or 0.13% to 22,025.95.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index slipped 0.55% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index declined 0.56%.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 1,364 shares rose and 2,444 shares fell. A total of 150 shares were unchanged.

Economy:

Indias industrial output expanded 4.9% year-over-year in March, slower than the 5.6% in February. Among the major three sectors, electricity output grew the most, up by 8.6%. This was followed by a 5.2% rise in manufacturing output. The slowdown in growth was largely due to a weaker upturn in mining output, which rose 1.2% annually in March versus 8.1% surge in the prior month. During April to March, industrial production expanded 5.8% from the same period last year, data showed.

Meanwhile, after falling for three consecutive weeks, Indias forex reserves jumped $3.668 billion to $641.59 billion for the week ended May 3, according to the latest RBI data. For the week ended April 5, the reserves had hit an all-time high of USD 648.562 billion, following multiple weeks of increases. The foreign currency assets, a major component of the reserves, increased by $4.459 billion to $564.161 billion.

Gold reserves decreased $653 million to $54.88 billion during week ended May 3. The special drawing rights (SDRs) were up $2 million to $18.051 billion, according to the latest RBI data.

Derivatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, surged 10.36% to 20.39. The Nifty 30 May 2024 futures were trading at 22,101.55, at a premium of 75.6 points as compared with the spot at 22,025.95.

The Nifty option chain for the 30 May 2024 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 31 lakh contracts at the 22,500 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 35.5 lakh contracts were seen at 21,500 strike price.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Oil & Gas index slipped 1.41% to 11,188.60. The index advanced 1.19% in the past trading session.

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (down 2.94%), Oil India (down 2.82%), Indraprastha Gas (down 2.59%), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (down 2%), Oil & Natural Gas Corpn (down 1.41%), Indian Oil Corporation (down 1.26%), Petronet LNG (down 1.18%), Mahanagar Gas (down 1.18%), Adani Total Gas (down 1.14%) and Reliance Industries (down 0.83%) declined.

Stocks in Spotlight :

ABB India jumped 9.93% after the companys net profit (from continuing operations) surged 87.46% to Rs 459.60 crore in Q1 CY24 as against Rs 245.17 crore recorded in Q1 CY23. The companys total revenue from operations jumped 27.75% to Rs 3,080.36 crore in Q1 CY24 as compared to Rs 2,411.21 recorded in corresponding quarter last year.

JK Cement rose 1.33% after the cement maker's consolidated net profit zoomed 100.6% to Rs 219.75 crore in Q4 FY24 as compared to Rs 109.52 crore recorded in Q4 FY23. Revenue from operations jumped 11.8% year on year to Rs 3,105.77 crore in the quarter ended 31 March 2024.

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