Sensex tanks 470 pts, Nifty falls below 17700 in early trade on Wed, Feb 22; Sapphire Foods, SBIN shares plunge

Indian benchmark equity indices opened broadly lower on Wednesday amid negative global market sentiment. The BSE Sensex fell 476 pts or 0.78% to 60,196.57 and NSE Nifty 50 plunged 146 pts or 0.82% to 17,680.05. The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Consumer (up 0.82%), Bajaj Auto(up 0.81%), Coal India (up 0.61%), Larsen & Toubro (up 0.45%) and Britannia (up 0.45%) while Adani Enterprises (down 4.19%), Eicher Motors (down 1.35%), BPCL (down 1.27%), IndusInd Bank (down 1.14%) and Grasim (down 1.14%).

Sapphire Foods, SBIN shares in focus today

Sapphire Foods India shares fell 1.45% to Rs 1219.00 on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the company’s wholly-owned subsidiary Gamma Pizzakraft (Overseas) approved a subscription of up to 81,914 Equity Shares of Gamma Island Food, which operates Pizza Hut and KFC restaurants in the Maldives under franchise agreements. This will take the shareholding to 75% from the current 51%.

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Sectoral Indices

The sectoral indices were trading broadly in red. Bank Nifty fell 0.53%, Nifty Auto was down 0.22%, Nifty PSU Bank slipped 0.68% and Nifty IT dipped 0.79% while Nifty Pharma was up 0.28%.

Asian and US stock markets

All major Asian markets were trading in red with China’s Shanghai Composite index falling 0.40%, Japan’s Nikkei 225 sinking 1.49%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipping 0.49% and South Korea’s KOSPI dipping 1.47%.

The US markets ended Tuesday’s session broadly lower with Dow Jones Industrial Average tanking 697.01 pts or 2.06% to 33,129.59, tech-heavy Nasdaq sank 294.97 pts or 2.50% to 11,492.30 and S&P 500 plunged 81.75 pts or 2% to 3,997.34.

FII and DII data

Foreign institutional investors (FII) bought shares worth a net Rs 525.8 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DII) sold equities worth a net Rs 235.23 crore on 21 February, according to the provisional data available on the NSE.

NSE F&O Ban

The National Stock Exchange has put Vodafone Idea on its F&O ban list for 22 February. According to the NSE, stocks are prohibited in the F&O sector once 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 that stock.