The headline equity indices traded in narrow range with deep cuts in afternoon trade. Impacted by geopolitical tensions arose after Iran's attack on Israel. The Nifty traded around the 22,350 mark. Barring the Nifty Oil and Gas index, all the other sectoral indices on the NSE were in red.
At At 13:29 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, slipped 594.69 points or 0.80% to 73,650.21. The Nifty 50 index declined 170.15 points or 0.76% to 22,349.25.
The broader market underperformed the frontline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index lost 1.03% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index fell 0.90%.
The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 914 shares rose and 2,937 shares fell. A total of 136 shares were unchanged.
Economy:
India's wholesale inflation rate quickened to three-month high of 0.53% in February, mainly driven by food and primary articles, data released by the commerce ministry on April 15 showed.
Wholesale Price Index (WPI) inflation stood at 0.2 percent in February and 1.34% in March 2023. Food prices rose 4.65% as compared with an increase of 4.09% in February.
For the FY24, the wholesale inflation index fell 0.7% versus a 9.41% rise a year ago.
Retail inflation eased to a five-month low in March on the marginally moderating food inflation, while industrial output growth rebounded to a four-month high in February, led by robust infra sectors and consumer durables output.
India's retail inflation eased to 4.85% on an annual basis in March as against 5.09% in the previous month, data showed on Friday. Meanwhile, the industrial production surged to a four-month high of 5.7% in February compared with 4.3% in the previous month.
Gainers & Losers:
Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (up 5.89%), Hindalco Industries (up 3.07%), Nestle India (up 1.27%), NTPC (up 0.79%) and Reliance Industries (up 0.54%) were major Nifty gainers.
Shriram Finance (down 2.18%), Tata Consumer Products (down 2.17%), Divi's Laboratories (down 2.04%), Adani Enterprises (down 1.99%) and ICICI Bank (down 1.89%) were major Nifty losers.
Stocks in Spotlight:
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) shed 0.89%. The company announced that its consolidated net profit increased 12.44% to Rs 12,434 crore in Q4 FY24 as compared with Rs 11,058 crore in Q3 FY24. Revenue from operations increased 1.08% QoQ to Rs 61,237 crore in Q4 FY24.
Adani Enterprises declined 2.02%. The company on Friday announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Adani Global will acquire a 49% stake in Adani Esyasoft Smart Solutions, Abu Dhabi.
Adani Green Energy slipped 2.95%. The power generation company reported a 7% YoY increase in solar portfolio energy sales to 3,066 million units in Q4 FY24 as against 2,872 million units posted in Q4 FY23.
Aster DM Healthcare surged 8.22% after the company said its board has declared a special dividend of Rs 118 per equity share.
Anand Rathi Wealth rallied 4.62% after its consolidated net profit rose 32.83% to Rs 56.60 crore in Q4 FY24 as against Rs 42.61 crore in Q4 FY23. Total revenue increased 34.08% year on year (YoY) to Rs 197.19 crore in the quarter ended 31 March 2024.
Global Markets:
Most of the European stocks advanced while Asian stocks mostly declined on Monday as geopolitical tension heightened after Iran's attack on Israel over the weekend.
Traders weighed the impact of Iran?s massive drone and missile attacks on Israel. Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles against military targets in Israel on Saturday. Though significant in scale, the Iranian attack caused little actual damage in Israel, as per reports.
China will announce its first quarter GDP numbers on Tuesday. Japan will release its March trade data and inflation numbers on Wednesday and Friday, respectively.
US stocks tumbled Friday following a mixed start to earnings reporting season. Worries about potentially escalating tensions in the Middle East rattled financial markets, pushing investors to look for safer places for their money.
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