Sensex, Nifty open in red amid weak global cues; HUL shares fall 3%, Asian Paints shares plunge over 1%

Domestic indices opened flat on Friday and slipped into negative territory. The BSE Sensex was trading below 60,800 and the Nifty below 18,100. The 30-share BSE benchmark fell 109.39 points or 0.18% to 60,749.04 and Nifty 50 dropped 8.10 pts or 0.04% to 18,099.75. The top gainers of Sensex were IndusInd Bank (up 1.17%), Power Grid (up 1.06%), State Bank of India (up 0.91%), HDFC Bank (up 0.91%) and HDFC (up 0.86%) while Hindustan Unilever (HUL) (down 2.84%), Sun Pharma (down 1.73%), Asian Paints (down 1.20%), Nestle India (down 1.20%) and Titan (down 0.94%).

HUL shares, Asian Paints stock in focus today

Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) shares fell more than 3% on Friday to Rs 2,550 on NSE on profit-booking after the company’s Q3 results beat street estimates. HUL’s net profit for the quarter ended 31 December 2022 increased to Rs 2,505 crore, up 12% from Rs 2,243 crore reported in the year-ago period. Meanwhile, Asian Paints shares fell 1.61% to Rs 2822.00 after the company’s quarterly results missed market estimates. The company reported a 6.37% growth in consolidated net profit for the October-December quarter at Rs 1,097.06 crore. It had reported a profit of Rs 1,031.29 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year.

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Sectoral Indices

The sectoral indices were trading mixed. Bank Nifty rose 0.58%, PSU Bank climbed 0.98% and Nifty Private Bank advanced 0.53% while Nifty FMCG fell 0.91%, Nifty IT dropped 0.14%, Nifty Pharma plunged 0.66%, Nifty Auto slipped 0.23% and Nifty Oil & Gas sank 0.10%.

Asian and US stock markets

China’s Shanghai Composite index rose 20.63 points or 0.64% to 3,260.91, Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 35.35 pts or 0.13% to 26,440.48 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng advanced 217.44 pts or 1% to 21,868.42 on Friday. The stock indices in the United States concluded Thursday’s session in red with the major indices falling over half a percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) fell 252.40 pts or 0.76% to 33,044.56, S&P 500 dropped 30.01 pts or 0.76% to 3,898.85 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq plunged 104.74 or 0.96% to 10,852.27.

FII and DII data

Foreign institutional investors (FII) bought shares worth a net Rs 399.98 crore while domestic institutional investors (DII) sold shares worth a net Rs 128.96 crore on Thursday, January 19, 2023, according to the data available on NSE. 

NSE F&O Ban

Delta Corp, Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals Limited (GNFC), L&T Finance Holdings and Manappuram Finance Ltd are the stocks/securities placed on the National Stock Exchange’s futures and options (F&O) ban for trade on Friday, January 20. According to the NSE, the stocks mentioned above are prohibited in the F&O sector because they have exceeded 95% of the market-wide position limit (MWPL). During the F&O ban period, no new positions are permitted for F&O contracts in these stocks.