Barometers traded with steep cuts; oil & gas stocks fall for 3rd day

The key equity indices continued to trade with deep cuts in mid-morning trade. The Nifty traded below the 17,700 level. Oil & gas stocks declined for third consecutive session.

At 11:28 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 746.13 points or 1.24% to 59,458.93. The Nifty 50 index lost 208.20 points or 1.16% to 17,683.75.

Concurrently, The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, surged 12.23% to 16.45.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 1.09% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index declined 1.34%.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 886 shares rose, and 2434 shares fell. A total of 137 shares were unchanged.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Oil & Gas index tumbled 5.34% to 7,978.20. The index has declined 7.58% in three sessions.

Adani Total Gas (down 19.26%), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (down 6.07%), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (down 2.47%), Oil & Natural Gas Corp (down 2.39%) and Reliance Industries (down 1.98%) were the top losers.

Among the other losers were Gujarat Gas (down 1.8%), GAIL (India) (down 1.78%), Oil India (down 1.38%), Indian Oil Corporation (down 1.33%) and Gujarat State Petronet (down 0.66%).

On the other hand, Indraprastha Gas (up 1.67%), Aegis Logistics (up 0.88%) and Petronet LNG (up 0.55%) moved up.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Tata Elxsi rose 0.64%. The design led technology service provider reported a 29% rise in net profit to Rs 194.68 crore on 28.7% increase in revenue from operations to Rs 817.74 crore in Q3 FY23 over Q3 FY22.

Chennai Petroleum Corporation jumped 4.53%. The company's standalone net profit declined 37.5% to Rs 142.95 crore in Q3 FY23 as against Rs 228.83 crore recorded in Q3 FY22. Net sales surged 61.5% to Rs 16,054.44 in the quarter ended 31 December 2022 from Rs 9,939.29 crore posted in the corresponding quarter previous year.

Global Markets:

Asian stocks traded in a mixed manner on Wednesday, taking the lead from Wall Street's struggle for direction as China and Hong Kong markets remain closed for the Lunar New Year holidays.

US stocks ended nominally lower on Tuesday at the close of a rocky session marked by a raft of mixed earnings and a technical malfunction at the opening bell.

The downturn in the US business activity eased slightly in January even as it contracted for the seventh straight month, survey showed on Tuesday. S&P Global said its flash US Composite PMI Output Index, which tracks the manufacturing and services sectors, shot off to 46.6 this month from a final reading of 45 in December.

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