Nifty slips below 15,100; metal stocks tumble

A bout of volatility was witnessed in mid-morning trade, as the Nifty once again slipped below the 15,100 mark. PSU bank stocks continued to be in demand while IT, metal and pharma tumbled.

At 11:27 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 128.04 points or 0.25% at 51,196.03. The Nifty 50 index fell 37.15 points or 0.25% to 15,081.80.

In broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.29% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.37%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1427 shares rose and 1237 shares fell. A total of 142 shares were unchanged.

 

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 110,289,988 with 2,441,112 deaths. India reported 139,542 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 156,111 deaths while 106,67,741 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Economy:

S&P Global Ratings has said that India will be one of the fastest growing emerging market economies with a 10% growth in the next fiscal. S&P Director, Sovereign & International Public Finance Ratings, Andrew Wood said this while speaking in a webinar on India outlook for 2021.

He said the forecast for India in 2021 is on the stronger side and shows that a lot of economic activity, which was frozen last year, is coming back on line to normalisation.

S&P said India's economy has stabilised over recent months, with progressively better manufacturing, services, labour market, and revenue data. The hard part will be converting these trends into a sustained recovery over the next few years.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Metal index slipped 1.2% to 3,579.50, snapping its three-day winning streak. The index saw profit taking after rallying 4.4% in the past three days.

Tata Steel (down 2.82%), Hindalco Industries (down 1.61%), Vedanta (down 1.61%), JSW Steel (down 1.27%), Jindal Steel & Power (down 1.27%) and Coal India (down 1%) were top losers in metal space.

Global Markets:

Asian stocks were trading lower on Friday, tracking overnight decline on the Wall Street. Japan's core consumer prices declined 0.6% in January as compared with a year earlier, according to data released Friday by the country's Statistics Bureau.

U.S. stocks slid on Thursday as investors were discouraged by a worse-than-expected jobless claims reading as well as a weak forecast from Walmart.

Walmart shares dropped sharply after its fourth-quarter earnings fell short of estimates. The big-box retailer sees sales growth slowing this year as the pandemic momentum ebbs.

Meanwhile, the latest jobless claims number signalled a setback in the labor market recovery. First-time filings for unemployment insurance totaled 861,000 last week, the highest level in a month, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

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