The key equity benchmarks continued to trade with significant cuts in early afternoon trade. The Nifty continued to trade below the 17,850 mark after the hitting the day's high of 17,945.80 in early trade. IT shares advanced for second consecutive session.
The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 249.21 points or 0.41% to 59,856.29. The Nifty 50 index lost 73.05 points or 0.41% to 17,822.65.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index slipped 0.18% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index shed 0.01%.
The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,421 shares rose and 1,931 shares fell. A total of 161 shares were unchanged.
Investors look ahead to the U.S. consumer price index report due later in the day. The December CPI report will inform investors as to whether the Federal Reserve needs to move forward with more aggressive interest rate hikes to tame inflation, or if the central bank can pull back as inflation is showing signs of steadily cooling off.
On the macro front, the Industrial Production and Manufacturing Production data for November will be released today. Inflation rate for December will also be declared today.
Economy:
The provisional figures of direct tax collections up to 10 January 2023 stood at Rs 14.71 lakh crore which is 24.58% higher than the gross collections for the corresponding period of last year.
Direct Tax collection, net of refunds, stood at Rs 12.31 lakh crore which is 19.55 % higher than the net collections for the corresponding period of last year. This collection is 86.68% of the total Budget Estimates of Direct Taxes for F.Y. 2022-23.
Derivatives:
The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, rose 1.49% to 15.67. The Nifty 25 January 2022 futures were trading at 17,886.95, at a premium of 64.3 points as compared with the spot at 17,822.65.
The Nifty option chain for the 25 January 2022 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 30.6 lakh contracts at the 18,000 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 31.6 lakh contracts were seen at 18,000 strike price.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty IT index rose 0.43% to 28,719.25. The index has advanced 0.76% in two sessions.
Persistent Systems (up 1.36%), HCL Technologies (up 1.23%), LTI Mindtree (up 0.98%), L&T Technology Services (up 0.47%) and Tata Consultancy Services (up 0.34%) were the top gainers.
On the other hand, Coforge (down 1.55%), Wipro (down 0.37%) and Mphasis (down 0.19%) turned lower.
Stocks in Spotlight:
State Bank of lndia (SBI) was down 0.58%. The public sector bank said that the Central Government has extended the term of Challa Sreenivasulu Setty as the managing director of SBI for a period of two years, effective from 20 January 2023.
Zydus Lifesciences slipped 0.70%. The company's subsidiary Zydus Worldwide DMCC (Zydus) has received final approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to market Brexpiprazole Tablets. Brexpiprazole is an atypical antipsychotic indicated for use as an adjunctive therapy to antidepressants for the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD) in adults. The tablets had annual sales of USD 1,548 million in the United States according to IQVIA data (IQVIA MAT Sept. 2022).