Sensex, Nifty50 fall amid increased volatility: FMCG, oil & gas, metal stocks drag indices down

• India’s benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty50 fell in the first half of trading on Tuesday after a flat opening in the morning.
  
• Dragging the indices down were FMCG, oil & gas and metal stocks.
  
• SGX Nifty, an early indicator of how the markets may perform, was up 0.05% or 9 points early in the morning today.

India’s benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty50 fell in the first half of trading on Tuesday after a flat opening in the morning. Dragging the indices down were FMCG, oil & gas and metal stocks. SGX Nifty, an early indicator of how the markets may perform, was up 0.05% or 9 points early in the morning today.

While the 30-stock Sensex was down 0.2% or 120 points to 59,167, the 50-stock Nifty50 was down 0.2% or 36 points to 17,357 halfway through the day today.

Top gainers and losers on Nifty50

Source: NSE, February 28, 2023
Earlier on Monday, the markets saw volatile movement, closing the day in the red. While Sensex fell 0.3% to 59,288 points, Nifty50 declined 0.42% to 17,393 points. Most of the sectoral indices ended the day in red, with IT, metal and auto stocks falling the most.

Worries of more rate hikes by the US Fed led to a decline in oil futures, with the Brent crude falling to $82 per barrel.

Global markets show positivity

Markets in the US closed in the green on Monday as buyers hunted for bargain purchases. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.22% while S&P 500 closed 0.31% higher. The tech-heavy Nasdaq closed 0.63% in the green.

In Asia, most markets were in the green on Tuesday morning, led by KOSPI at 0.9% and followed by Hang Seng at 0.59%. Nikkei 225 gained 0.43% while Shanghai Composite was up 0.15%. Taiwan Weighted, on the other hand, was down 0.72%.

Stocks to watch

SpiceJet: Carlyle Aviation Partners will acquire 7.5% stake in the airline to reduce debt by $100 million by converting outstanding dues and snap up shareholding in the cargo business. In addition, the airline will also tap the qualified institutional buyer (QIB) route to raise up to ₹25,000 crore.

Vodafone Idea: Shareholders of debt-ridden telco have approved the preferential issuance of up to ₹1,600 crore of optionally convertible debentures to vendor American Tower Corp.

Dr Reddy’s Laboratories: The pharma company is planning to buy Mayne Pharma’s US generic prescription product portfolio for $105 million. For this, it will acquire the portfolio for an upfront payment of $90 million in cash, contingent payment of up to $15 million.

Bharti Airtel: The company’s chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that he is hopeful of telecom tariffs being hiked by the middle of this year. The returns on capital in telecom business is very low, which is why the rate hike is expected this mid year.

Zee Entertainment: Amid the insolvency proceedings in NCLAT, the NSE said that the company may move out of the OBC framework and the corresponding surveillance actions on it will be reverted. Also, the F&O contracts for May 2023 expiry will be available for trading from February 28.

SEE ALSO:

Passenger vehicles to continue driving auto sales in February, EVs gain a stronghold

SpiceJet to raise ₹2,500 crore fresh capital, convert Carlyle’s debt into equity and demerge cargo biz

Stock price run up in Paytm, Nykaa, Zomato, PB Fintech & Delhivery could see large shareholders cashing out - BofA