The key equity benchmarks traded with moderate losses in the morning trade. The Nifty traded below the 22,850 mark. Realty shares extended losses for the second day in a row.
At 10:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, declined 328.94 points or 0.46% to 75,575.99. The Nifty 50 index slipped 102.45 points or 0.45% to 22,826.80.
The broader market underperformed the frontline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index shed 0.62% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index slipped 1.15%.
The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 995 shares rose and 2,705 shares fell. A total of 168 shares were unchanged.
Economy:
India’s foreign exchange (forex) reserves jumped $7.654 billion to $638.261 billion in the week ended February 7, according to the latest RBI data released on Friday.
For the week ended February 7, foreign currency assets, a major component of the reserves, increased by $6.422 billion to $544.106 billion, the data released on Friday showed.
Gold reserves increased by $1.315 billion to $72.208 billion during the week. The special drawing rights (SDRs) were down by $11 million to $17.878 billion, according to the data.
India’s reserve position with the IMF was down by $71 million at $4.069 billion in the week under review, the RBI data showed.
New Listing:
Shares of Ajax Engineering were currently trading at Rs 575.30 at 10:10 IST on the BSE, representing a discount of 8.54% as compared with the issue price of Rs 629.
The scrip was listed at Rs 593, exhibiting a discount of 5.72% to the issue price.
So far, the stock has hit a high of 593 and a low of 565. On the BSE, over 3.28 lakh shares of the company were traded in the counter so far.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty IT index declined 1.69% to 817.40. The index slipped 3.4% in the past trading session.
Phoenix Mills (down 3.08%), Mahindra Lifespace Developers (down 2.91%), Raymond (down 2.44%), Godrej Properties (down 2.07%), Brigade Enterprises (down 0.98%), DLF (down 0.85%), Macrotech Developers (down 0.73%), Oberoi Realty (down 0.51%) and Sobha (down 0.22%) declined.
Stocks in Spotlight:
Zydus Lifesciences added 1.75% after the company announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) conducted a surveillance inspection at the company’s active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing facility located in Ambernath, Maharashtra.
Rites declined 1.28%. The company said that it has secured a major order for providing comprehensive engineering and project management services from NLC India worth Rs 466.55 crore.
Welspun Corp fell 2.24%. The company announced that it has received new orders worth Rs 3,000 crore for the supply of pipes in the US.