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The key equity benchmarks ended with modest losses on Friday. The Nifty closed a tad above the 17,150 level. While most sectoral indices on the NSE ended in the red, realty, oil & gas and PSU banks managed to end higher.
As per provisional closing data, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex fell 233.48 points or 0.41% to 57,362.20. The Nifty 50 index lost 69.75 points or 0.40% to 17,153.
In broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.36% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index slipped 0.33%.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was weak. On the BSE, shares 1,353 rose and 2,047 shares fell. A total of 110 shares were unchanged.
Economy:
India's projected economic growth for 2022 has been downgraded by over 2% to 4.6% by the United Nations, a decrease attributed to the ongoing war in Ukraine, with New Delhi expected to face restraints on energy access and prices, reflexes from trade sanctions, food inflation, tightening policies and financial instability, according to a UN report released on Thursday.
The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report downgraded its global economic growth projection for 2022 to 2.6% from 3.6% due to shocks from the Ukraine war and changes in macroeconomic policies that put developing countries particularly at risk. The report said while Russia will experience a deep recession this year, significant slowdowns in growth are expected in parts of Western Europe and Central, South and South-East Asia.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty Realty index rose 1.22% to 449.15. The index has added 1.72% in two sessions.
Godrej Properties (up 3.40%), Prestige Estates (up 2.97%), DLF (up 2.38%), Oberoi Realty (up 0.69%) and The Phoenix Mills (up 0.83%) advanced.
Sobha Developers (down 1.89%), Sunteck Realty (down 1.26%), Oberoi Realty (down 1.05%), Macrotech Developers (down 0.96%), Brigade Enterprises (down 0.51%) and Indiabulls Real Estate (down 0.29%) declined.
Stocks in Spotlight:
Tata Consumer Products shed 0.65% to Rs 734.55. The meeting of the board of directors of the company is scheduled on 29 March 2022 to consider preferential issue of equity shares of the company.
Exide Industries slipped 0.32% to Rs 153.70. Chloride Metals, a material wholly owned subsidiary of the company has started commercial production at its newly set-up green field manufacturing facility of battery recycling at Haldia, West Bengal.
Zen Technologies jumped 4.81% at Rs 205. The company has received a project sanction order (PSO) from the Indian Army for design and development of prototype of Integrated Air Defence Combat Simulator (IADCS).
GTPL Hathway fell 3.95% to Rs 186. The company announced its partnership with Verimatrix to onboard its Video Content Authority System (VCAS) to protect its Google Android TV-based DVB Hybrid set top box.
Lumax Auto Technologies slipped 2.79% to Rs 174.50. The application filed by the company along with its subsidiaries under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for automobile and auto component industry (PLI-AUTO) has been approved by IFCI.
Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) added 1.47% to Rs 1443.05 after the market regulator SEBI allowed exchanges having a commodity derivative segment to facilitate trading in options on commodity indices.
Bharti Airtel advanced 0.81% to Rs 712. The telecom company on Friday announced that it has paid Rs 8,815 crore to the Department of Telecom (Government of India) towards part prepayment of deferred liabilities pertaining to spectrum acquired in auction of year 2015. The prepayment is for instalments due in FY 2027 and FY 2028.
In the past four months, Bharti Airtel has settled Rs 24,334 crore of its deferred spectrum liabilities much ahead of scheduled maturities. These liabilities carried an interest rate of 10% and have been paid off through a combination of strong free cash generated by business, equity proceeds and significantly lower cost debt of similar tenor.
Torrent Power fell 1.30% to Rs 487.85. The company said that it has completed transaction of acquisition of 100% of the share capital and all securities of LREHL Renewables India SPV 1 (SPV). The enterprise value for this acquisition is around Rs 300 crore, including the viability gap funding (VGF) receivable, consequent to closing adjustments.
The SPV operates 50 MW solar power plant, commissioned in April 2018, situated in the state of Maharashtra. It has a long-term power purchase agreement with Solar Energy Corporation of India for full capacity for a period of 25 years at a tariff of Rs 4.43 per kWh.
Bajaj Electricals (BEL) declined 2.05% to Rs 1039.90. The company said that CRISIL Ratings has assigned its 'CRISIL A+/CRISIL A1+' ratings to the bank loan facilities of the company. These ratings have been placed on 'rating watch with developing implications' while the rating on the short-term debt programme of the BEL has been reaffirmed at 'CRISIL A1+'.
Aurionpro Solutions shed 0.54% to Rs 303. The company's US-based subsidiary, Aurionpro Fintech Inc. bagged an order from a large payment facilitator in the USA offering merchant payment services in insurance financing segment. The scope of the order covers platform upgradation, maintenance & support therefor and also the managed services for AWS cloud infrastructure. The contract is for a tenure of 1 year and is valued at $3 million (approximately Rs 23 crore) spread monthly over the tenure of the contract.
Global Markets:
Most European markets advanced while most Asian stocks ended lower on Friday.
US stocks rose following choppy trading on Thursday, as investors watched western leaders present a unified front against Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Technology companies lifted US stock indices after a sharp fall in the previous session.
Global markets have been tracking negotiations over Russia's invasion of Ukraine closely, and Thursday saw a host of high-level meetings between world leaders and international bodies.
US President Joe Biden said Thursday that NATO would respond “in kind” if Russia uses weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine. The president spoke after a marathon of summit meetings with the European Union, G-7 partners and NATO allies. Biden also said he would support an effort to expel Russia from the G-20 group of economies.
