Is weakness in newly listed stocks an opportunity to buy?

Welcome to ETMarkets Watch, the show about stocks, market trends and money-making ideas. I am Bhaskar Dutta and here are the top headlines at this hour.

- Tata Power, RWE tie-up for wind projects
- Pak toughens law on fake news on Twitter, FB
- IT firms hire freshers in record numbers
- Govt aims sustained recovery, says FM
and
- Formal job creation jumped 16.4% in Dec

Let us take a quick glance at what happened on Dalal Street today.

Domestic equity markets kicked off the new week on a negative note as benchmark indices settled lower for the fourth session in a row. The growing scare of invasion of Kyiv by Moscow kept investors on tenterhooks. Metal and pharma players were the top drags while banks and IT counters gave some relief. Analysts expect the market to continue to remain volatile ahead of the March Fed meeting and state election results.

The BSE barometer Sensex gyrated in a 975-point range. Ultimately, it dropped 150 points to settle below 57,700 levels. Its broader peer, Nifty50, shed close to 70 points but ended the day above 17,200 levels. It scaled 17,350 during the session but could not hold it for long. Broader markets underperformed the headline peers as BSE Midcap lost close to 1 per cent and BSE Smallcap over 2 per cent. Fear gauge India VIX spiked more than 3 per cent and was just shy of 23 levels.

On BSE Sensex, Sun Pharma, TCS and ITC were the top three losers, dropping 2 per cent each. Tech Mahindra, Ultratech, Titan, M&M, L&T, Reliance and HUL shed a per cent each. Among the gainers, Wipro, Infosys and Power Grid added over a per cent each. ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank gained over half a per cent each. Maruti, Nestle, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank were other players that ended in the green. More than 220 stocks hit upper circuits during the session and over 540 stocks tested their lower circuit limits. As many as 32 stocks tested their 52-week highs during the session while 116 other stocks tested their 52-week lows.

We have Narendra Solanki from Anand Rathi Shares & Stock Brokers to share his views on the action and the road ahead. Welcome to the show sir:

1. Domestic markets gave up all gains and ended weak. What were the reasons behind the volatility?
2. Recently listed stocks have been under pressure lately. Do you see any buying opportunities in them?

We also caught up with Vaishali Parekh from Prabhudas Lilladher to decode the technical charts for you.

1. Nifty50 managed to settle above 17,200 levels. What is your take on it?
2. Nifty Bank was able to end the session with gains. Where is it headed now?

Asian markets settled mostly lower for the day. Major European markets were trading with cuts in the first few hours of trade. However, US stock futures were up flat towards a mixed start to US equities later in the day.

That’s all for now. Do check out ETMarkets.com for all the news, market analysis, investment strategies and dozens of stock recommendations. Enjoy your evening. Bye Bye!