Domestic indices crashed over 2% intraday on Friday as the market remained nervous ahead of the Budget. The Hindenburg’s report dragged Adani stocks lower. Banking stocks were among the worst hit. The BSE Sensex closed below 59,350 and the NSE Nifty 50 below 17,610. The top gainers of the BSE Sensex were Tata Motors (up 6.22%), ITC (up 1.69%), Mahindra & Mahindra (up 0.60%), UltraTech Cement (up 0.41%) and Bajaj Finserv (up 0.39%) while SBIN (down 4.67%), ICICI Bank (down 4.29%), IndusInd Bank (down 3.88%), Axis Bank (down 1.96%) and Kotak Bank (down 1.86%) were the losers.
“Before the Union Budget and Federal Reserve’s monetary policy action next week, the domestic market is experiencing a bloodbath on Friday intraday trade, extending the decline from the previous session. Another reason for fall in Nifty and bank nifty is, Adani group stocks are still falling precipitously in value For the second consecutive day and almost all listed Adani Group equities hitting 5-20% lower circuit. Other heavyweights are HDFC BANK and SBIN which pressurizing Banknifty. Technically Banknifty has given breakout of major support level of 41500 in the morning session itself and then sustaining near 40000 which is another major as well as psychological support level. Overall on the downside 38700 is the support level while 41500 can act as a major resistance level,” said Naveen Mishra, Senior Research Analyst – Equity Research.
Indian stock market
The BSE Sensex crashed 874.16 pts or 1.45% settling at 59,330.90 and the Nifty 50 tanked 287.60 pts or 1.61% to 17,604.35. In the sectoral indices, Bank Nifty fell 3.13%, Nifty PSU Bank was down 5.43%, Nifty Private Bank down 2.69%, Nifty Metal down 4.69% and Nifty Oil & Gas down 5.60%. Adani group stocks fell up to 20% in the intraday trade following the release of the Hindenburg report. Tata Motors shares surged over 6% closing at Rs 445.55 after the company reported strong Q3 performance.
Asian Markets
China remained closed on Friday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 19.81 pts or 0.07% settling at 27,382.56, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed 122.12 pts or 0.54% to 22,688.90 and South Korea’s KOSPI rose 15.52 pts or 0.63% to 2,484.18.
European Markets
England’s FTSE100 was trading at 7,773.28, up 12.17 points or 0.16% at 3:30 PM (IST). Europe’s Euronext100 was up 3.03 points or 0.23% at 1,335.30. France’s CAC was trading 10.30 points or 0.15% higher at 7,106.38. Germany’s DAX was up 16.27 points or 0.11% at 15,149.12.
US Markets
U.S. equity closed in the green territory on Thursday, with the S&P 500 ending at the highest level since early December, as the fourth-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) came in slightly stronger than expected, boosting investor confidence. The S&P 500 rose 44.21 points or 1.1% to end at 4,060.43. Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA gained 205.57 points or 0.6% to finish at 33,949.41. Nasdaq Composite COMP advanced 199.06 points or 1.8% ending at 11,512.41.
Rupee movement
The Indian rupee rose 0.08% to 81.52 against the US dollar at 3:30 PM (IST).
Gold, Silver
Gold futures on the multi-commodity exchange for February delivery were trading at 56,800.00 down 162 points or 0.28% while Silver futures for March delivery were down 27 points or 0.04% at 68,649.00 at 3:55 PM (IST).
Crude oil
WTI Crude futures for February delivery were up 1.21% at $81.94 while Brent Crude futures for March delivery were trading 1.19% higher at $88.51 at 3:55 PM (IST).
Cryptocurrency
Bitcoin (BTC) at 3:55 PM (IST) was trading at $22,966.96, down by 0.06% in the last 24 hours. Its total market cap is $442,751,561,970. Ethereum (ETH) was trading at $1,580.63, down by 1.61% in the last 24 hours. It has a total market cap of $193,450,427,856.