The benchmark indices pared some losses and traded with minor cuts in afternoon trade. The Nifty traded a tad above the 18,600 level after hitting the day's low of 18,564.50 in mid-morning trade. FMCG, PSU bank and oil & gas stocks were in demand. On the other hand, media, realty and consumer durables shares witnessed a bit of a selling pressure.
At 13:29 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 58.24 points or 0.09% to 62,568.12. The Nifty 50 index lost 36.65 points or 0.20% to 18,606.10.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index shed 0.27% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index declined 0.33%.
The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,509 shares rose and 1,896 shares fell. A total of 152 shares were unchanged.
On the political front, various exit polls on Monday predicted a big majority for the BJP in Gujarat and a dead heat in Himachal Pradesh where most pollsters gave an edge to the ruling party over the Congress. The counting of votes in both states will take place on 8 December. Elections for the Himachal Pradesh assembly took place on 12 November, while polling in Gujarat happened in two phases on 1 and 5 December.
RBI MPC Meet Outcome:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised the policy repo rate by 35 bps to 6.25% after the conclusion of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting today, 7 December 2022.
RBI governor Shaktikanta Das announced that the central bank has hiked lending rate by 35 basis points as inflation has started showing signs of easing and economic growth tapering.
Standing Deposit Facility rate and Marginal Standing Facility Rate were also increased by 35 basis points each to 6% and 6.5%.
Das said the MPC voted 4-2 to remain focused on withdrawal of accommodation so that inflation remains within the target going forward while supporting growth.
On balance, MPC was of the view that further calibrated action was warranted to keep inflation expectation anchored, break core inflation persistence and contain second round effects.
RBI expects inflation to be above 4% in the next 12 months. The GDP growth forecast for October-December 2022 is lowered to 4.4%. It is lowered to 4.2% for January-March 2023 period.
Gainers & Losers:
Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) (up 2.30%), Hindustan Unilever (HUL) (up 1.75%), Larsen & Toubro (L&T) (up 1.58%), Asian Paints (up 1.29%) and ITC (up 1.05%) were top Nifty gainers.
Bajaj Finserv (down 2.06%), NTPC (down 1.71%), Tata Motors (down 1.29%), Bajaj Auto (down 1.26%) and HeroMoto Corp (down 1.23%) were major Nifty losers.
Stocks in Spotlight:
Vedanta shed 0.25%. The mining company on Tuesday announced that its board will meet on Friday, 9 December 2022 to consider fund raising by issuing non-convertible debentures (NCDs) aggregating up to Rs 500 crore in one or more tranches.
Larsen & Toubro (L&T) rose 1.63%. The EPC major announced that its construction arm has secured 'mega' orders for its minerals and metals (M&M) business. As per L&T classification, the value of the mega project is above Rs 7,000 crore.
Ugro Capital fell 0.16%. A meeting of the Investment and borrowing committee of the board of directors is scheduled to be held on 9 December 2022, to consider and approve raising of funds by way of issuance of market-linked non-convertible debentures on private placement basis.
Bikaji Foods International rallied 3.67%. The company's consolidated net profit jumped 43.6% to Rs 40.93 crore on 31.8% rise in net sales to Rs 576.97 crore in Q2 FY23 over Q2 FY22.
Global Markets:
Asian stocks tumbled on Wednesday after major U.S. indexes fell more than 1% each overnight as recession concerns weigh on markets.
US stocks tumbled Tuesday, building on the previous session's losses, as fears of a recession gripped Wall Street.
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