The key equity barometers traded with significant cuts in afternoon trade. The Nifty traded above the 17,700 mark. Barring the Nifty Realty index, all the sectoral indices on the NSE were in the red. At 13:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 235.65 points or 0.39% to 60,271.25. The Nifty 50 index lost 44.15 points or 0.25% to 17,720.45. In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index shed 0.02% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index declined 0.20%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,443 shares rose, and 1,971 shares fell. A total of 139 shares were unchanged.

The RBI policy review meeting began on 6 February and concludes on 8 February 2023. The central bank is projected to raise the repo rate but at a slower pace. In its December monetary policy committee meeting, the RBI raised the policy repo rate by 35 basis points (bps) to 6.25%.

Gainers & Losers:

Adani Enterprises (up 14.09%), Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (up 2.22%), Dr. Reddy's Laboratories (up 2.07%), Kotak Mahindra Bank (up 0.90%) and Bajaj Finance (up 0.82%) were major Nifty gainers.

Tata Steel (down 5.41%), Hindalco Industries (down 4.49%), ITC (down 2.69%), HeroMoto Corp (down 2.61%) and Sun Phamraceutical Industries (down 1.81%) were top Nifty losers.

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) gained 2.22%. The company's consolidated net profit declined 12.95% to Rs 1,336.51 crore as against Rs 1,535.28 crore posted in Q3 FY22. Revenue from operations stood at Rs 4,786.17 crore in the quarter ended 31 December 2022 , registering a growth of 17.54% to Rs 4,071.98 reported in Q3 FY22. Cargo volumes grew 1% to 75.4 MMT in Q3 FY23 as compared to 74.4 MMT reported in the corresponding quarter previous year.

Tata Steel tumbled 5.41% after the company reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 2,502 crore in Q3 FY23 as against a net profit of Rs 9,598 crore in Q3 FY22. Total revenue from operations during the quarter amounted to Rs 57,084 crore, down 6% YoY. The fall in revenues was primarily driven by drop in realisations across geographies.

Stocks in Spotlight:

UltraTech Cement shed 0.36%. The cement major on Monday announced that it has commissioned 1.5 MTPA brownfield cement grinding unit at Jharsuguda, Odisha. This forms part of the on-going capacity expansion, said the company. The company's total cement capacity in Odisha has increased to 4.1 million tonnes per annum (mtpa).

Muthoot Finance fell 3.06% after the NBFC's standalone net profit slipped 12.4% to Rs 901.65 crore on 7.1% decrease in total income to Rs 2,667.10 crore in Q3 FY23 over Q3 FY22. Sequentially, the NBFC's net profit and total income in Q3 FY23 rose 3.97% and 6.53%, respectively.

JK Paper shed 1.17%. The company's consolidated net profit zoomed 119.2% to Rs 329.32 crore in Q3 FY23 from Rs 150.21 crore posted in Q3 FY22. Net revenue from operations was at Rs 1,643.06 crore in the quarter ended 31 December 2022, registering a growth of 60.5% as against Rs 1,023.62 crore reported in the same period last year.

Global Markets:

Asian stocks traded mixed on Tuesday, as investors digested the Reserve Bank of Australia's interest rate hike of 25 basis points, which was in line with expectations.

US stocks ended lower on Monday as investors shifted gears after considering the possibility that the Federal Reserve may take longer to start cutting interest rates.

Traders are keeping a close eye on speeches by Fed officials this week, including Chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday, for any change in the central bank's rhetoric after data last week showed services activity was strong in January as well as strong job growth.