The domestic equity barometers continued to trade with significant losses in early afternoon trade. The Nifty traded above the 17,950 mark. Auto shares extended gains for second consecutive session.
The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 496.85 points or 0.82% to 60,250.46. The Nifty 50 index lost 138.75 points or 0.77% to 17,962.45.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index declined 0.37% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index shed 0.20%.
The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,421 shares rose and 1,923 shares fell. A total of 168 shares were unchanged.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to hold a pre-budget meeting with economists and sectoral experts at NITI Aayog on 13 January 2023 to discuss the state of the economy and measures to accelerate growth, as per reports. The meeting will also be attended by several Union ministers. The 2023-24 Budget is set to be presented in Parliament on February 1.
Derivatives:
The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, jumped 4.14% to 15.26. The Nifty 25 January 2022 futures were trading at 18,035, at a premium of 72.55 points as compared with the spot at 17,962.45.
The Nifty option chain for the 25 January 2022 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 27.1 lakh contracts at the 19,000 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 32 lakh contracts were seen at 18,000 strike price.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty Auto index rose 0.50% to 12,847.40. The index has added 1.74% in two sessions.
Sona BLW Precision Forgings (up 7.6%), Tata Motors (up 6.82%), Samvardhana Motherson International (up 2.99%), Bosch (up 1.04%) and MRF (up 0.69%) were the top gainers.
Among the other gainers were Mahindra & Mahindra (up 0.5%), Bharat Forge (up 0.4%) and Ashok Leyland (up 0.4%).
On the other hand, Eicher Motors (down 2.22%), Hero MotoCorp (down 2.05%) and Tube Investments of India (down 1.76%) turned lower.
Stocks in Spotlight:
HDFC declined 1.56%. The housing finance major on Monday announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, HDFC Holdings (HHL) will sell its entire stake of 17.5% in Kaizen Management Advisors for Rs 1.10 crore.
Ducon Infratechnologies jumped 6.98%. The company announced the forming of alliances with leading EPC companies to jointly bid for many flue gas desulfurization (FGD) projects, in an attempt to increase its footprint in India's FGD market.