The key equity barometers continued to trade with deep cuts in early afternoon trade, mirroring the weakness in their Asian peers. The Nifty was struggling to hold above the crucial 17,000 mark. Auto stocks declined for third day in a row.
At 12:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 1154.25 points or 1.98% to 56,998.67. The Nifty 50 index lost 360.10 points or 2.07% to 17,014.65.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 2.03% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index slipped 2.05%.
The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 706 shares rose and 2,724 shares fell. A total of 121 shares were unchanged.
The standoff between Russia and Ukraine along with fears of an even more aggressive hawkish stance by the US Fed to reel in inflation continued to spook the global equity and commodity markets.
Economy:
India's inflation based on wholesale price index (WPI) stood at 12.96% in January 2022 compared with 2.51% in January 2021.
"The high rate of inflation in January, 2022 is primarily due to rise in prices of mineral oils, crude petroleum & natural gas, basic metals, chemicals and chemical products, food articles etc as compared the corresponding month of the previous year," the Ministry of Commerce & Industry said in a statement today.
WPI grew 13.56% in December 2021, while the figure for November 2021 was 14.87%.
LIC IPO:
Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has filed its draft share sale prospectus with the capital markets regulator SEBI, paving the way for India's largest initial public offering (IPO). LIC plans to sell 31.62 crore shares, which is about 5% of its total equity base.
The IPO issue is expected to be the country's largest public issue and will hit the capital market in March 2022. The IPO is 100% offer for sale by Government of India and there will be no fresh issue of shares by LIC.
LIC has 66% market share in New Business Premiums with 283 million policies and 1.35 million agents as of 31st March last year. As of September 2021, its assets under management (AUM) stood at Rs 39.6 lakh crore. The embedded value of LIC as of 30 September 2021, stood at Rs 5,39,686 crore.
Derivatives:
The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, surged 14.66% to 21.42. The Nifty 24 February 2022 futures were trading at 17,009.85, at a discount of 4.8 points as compared with the spot at 17,014.65.
The Nifty option chain for 24 February 2022 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 26.7 lakh contracts at the 18,000 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 34.3 lakh contracts was seen at 17,000 strike price.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty Auto index fell 2.85% to 11,224.20. The index lost 3.90% in three sessions.
Ashok Leyland (down 5.08%), Maruti Suzuki (down 3.46%), Tata Motors (down 3.28%), Mahindra & Mahindra (down 2.61%), Hero MotoCorp (down 2.35%), Bharat Forge (down 1.56%), Bajaj Auto (down 1%) and TVS Motor Company (down 0.73%) declined.
Stocks in Spotlight:
Capri Global Capital (CGCL) jumped 8.37% to Rs 623 after the company's consolidated net profit rose 32.05% to Rs 64.89 crore on 32.49% increase in total income to Rs 253.78 crore in Q3 December 2021 over Q3 December 2020.
Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders shed 0.46% to Rs 261.05. The company reported 52% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 215.20 crore on a 6% increase in revenue from operations to Rs 1,552.50 crore in Q3 FY22 over Q3 FY21.
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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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