Nifty slips below 22,550 mark; oil & gas shares decline

The headline equity benchmarks traded with major losses in mid-afternoon trade, primarily driven by mixed global sentiment and a weak handover from the US markets. Concerns over Donald Trump's tariff policies and their potential impact on the US economy, along with reports of a new bat coronavirus strain in China and renewed tensions between Russia and Ukraine, weighed heavily on investor sentiment. The Nifty dropped below the 22,550 level.

Oil & Gas shares witnessed selling pressure for the third consecutive trading session.

At 14:28 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, tumbled 884.16 points or 1.17% to 74,425.20. The Nifty 50 index dropped 257.30 points or 1.13% to 22,538.60.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index shed 0.73% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index slipped 0.76%.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 1,219 shares rose and 2,684 shares fell. A total of 190 shares were unchanged.

Economy:

India's foreign exchange reserves snapped a three-week gaining streak to drop to $635.72 billion as of February 14, coming off over one-month highs, data released by the central bank on Friday showed.

Foreign currency assets, the largest component of forex reserves, dropped by $4.515 billion to $539.591 billion.

Gold reserves, however, saw a rise of $1.942 billion, reaching $74.15 billion during the week.

Meanwhile, special drawing rights (SDRs) increased by $19 million to $17.897 billion, and Indias reserve position with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) edged up by $14 million to $4.083 billion.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Oil& Gas index dropped 0.98% to 9,975. The index fell 2.03% in the two trading sessions.

Oil India (down 3.21%), Gujarat State Petronet (down 2.79%), Indraprastha Gas (down 1.73%), Oil & Natural Gas Corpn (down 1.63%), Mahanagar Gas (down 1.42%), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (down 1.39%), Reliance Industries (down 0.99%), Castrol India (down 0.96%), Adani Total Gas (down 0.95%) and Indian Oil Corporation (down 0.77%) declined.

Numbers to Track:

The yield on India's 10-year benchmark federal paper advanced 1.55% to 6.812 as compared with the previous close of 6.700.

In the foreign exchange market, the rupee edged higher against the dollar. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 86.7300, compared with its close of 86.6825 during the previous trading session.

MCX Gold futures for 4 April 2025 settlement were added 0.36% to Rs 86.254.

The US Dollar index (DXY), which tracks the greenback's value against a basket of currencies, was down 0.12% to 106.48.

The United States 10-year bond yield added 0.23% to 4.430.

In the commodities market, Brent crude for April 2025 settlement shed 07 cents or 0.09% to $74.36 a barrel.

Stocks in Spotlight:

NBCC (India) declined 1.39%. The company has announced that it has received a work order worth Rs 264.16 crore from NIT Kurukshetra.

Colab Cloud Platforms hit an upper circuit of 2% after the company announced that it has formed a wholly-owned subsidiary (WOS) named Colab Sports Ventures, which will focus on the business of sports goods, equipment, and apparels.

Healthcare Global Enterprises (HCG) rose 2.39% after the company said KKR, a prominent global investment firm, will acquire a controlling stake in oncology hospital chain.

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