Benchmarks pare some losses; European markets advance

The key equity benchmarks managed to pare some losses as they came off the day's low in afternoon trade. The Nifty traded above the 18,050 mark. European markets edged higher while most Asian markets traded in the green.

At 13:29 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 525.66 points or 0.86% to 60,768.54. The Nifty 50 index lost 154.50 points or 0.85% to 18,078.05.

JSW Steel (down 3.07%), Hindalco (down 2.72%), Coal India (down 2.71%), ONGC (down 2.21%) and Tata Motors (down 1.79%) were the top Nifty losers.

Divi's Lab (up 1.27%), HDFC Life (up 0.99%), Maruti Suzuki (up 0.78%), Ultratech Cement (up 0.63%) and Adani Enterprises (up 0.55%) outperformed.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index slipped 0.85% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index declined 0.65%.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 1,156 shares rose and 2,264 shares fell. A total of 133 shares were unchanged.

Economy:

The seasonally adjusted S&P Global India Services PMI Business Activity Index rose to 58.5 in December from 56.4 in November, highlighting the strongest rate of expansion since mid-2022. Companies commonly linked the upturn to robust intakes of new work and favourable market conditions.

Meanwhile, the S&P Global India Composite PMI Output Index rose from 56.7 in November to 59.4 in December, highlighting the quickest rate of growth since January 2012. Indian private sector firms signalled a strong performance at the end of 2022, with manufacturers and service providers recording faster expansions in output.

New Listing:

Shares of Radiant Cash Management Services were currently trading at Rs 106.90 on the BSE, representing a premium of 13.72% compared with the issue price of Rs 94. The scrip was listed at a price of Rs 99.30, at a premium of 5.64% as compared to the issue price.

So far, the stock has hit a high of 116.70 and a low of 98. On the BSE, over 28.40 lakh shares of the company were traded in the counter so far.

The initial public offer (IPO) of Radiant Cash Management Services (Radiant CMS) was subscribed 0.53 times. The issue opened for bidding on 23 December 2022 and it closed on 27 December 2022. The price band of the IPO was fixed at Rs 94-99 per share.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) declined 1.39%. HDFC said that during the quarter ended 31 December 2022, the corporation has assigned loans amounting to Rs 8,892 crore as compared to Rs 7,468 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year, up 19% YoY.

Avenue Supermarts declined 0.09%. Avenue Supermarts has reported a standalone revenue of Rs 11,304.58 crore in quarter ended 31 December 2022 from Rs 9,065.02 crore reported in the corresponding quarter previous year. The total number of stores as of 31 December 2022 stood at 306.

Reliance Industries slipped 1.34%. Reliance Consumer Products (RCPL), the FMCG arm and a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Retail Ventures (RRVL) on Tuesday (3 January 2023) announced that it will acquire 50% equity stake in Gujarat-headquartered Sosyo Hajoori Beverages (SHBPL). Sosyo Hajoori Beverages owns and operates a beverage business under the flagship brand 'Sosyo'.

NTPC declined 1.28%. India's largest power generator commissioned India's first green hydrogen blending project. The green hydrogen blending has been started in the piped natural gas (PNG) network of NTPC Kawas township, Surat. The project is a joint effort of NTPC and Gujarat Gas Limited (GGL).

Gland Pharma rose 0.44%. The US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) had conducted its pre-market inspection covering quality system/current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) regulations for medical devices at Gland Pharma's Dundigal facility in Hyderabad from 22 August 2022 to 25 August 2022. The pharma company said that it has now received Establishment Inspection Report (EIR) from the Office of Product Evaluation and Quality Center for Devices and Radiological Health, US FDA indicating closure of the inspection.

Allcargo Logistics advanced 1.81%. The company informed that its wholly owned step-down subsidiary AGL N.V. has entered into an agreement to acquire Asiapac Equity Investment for $4.99 million. Allcargo stated that the said acquisition would result in increase in business of the company in Turkey in full container load (FCL) as well as less than container load (LCL) consolidation and contribute to future growth.

Global markets:

Markets in Eruope advanced across the board while those in Asia traded in a mixed manner on Wednesday as investors look ahead to the Federal Reserve's meeting minutes for December.

Global markets will be looking for insight into the central bank's thought process when it comes to interest rates and the state of health of the U.S. economy.

In addition, the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, better known as JOLTS, and ISM manufacturing data will be released stateside.

Yesterday, Germany published lower-than-expected inflation figures for December, down to 9.6% year on year. Inflation figures from France are due on Wednesday.

Wall Street's main indices closed lower on the first trading day of 2023 with the biggest drags from Tesla and Apple, while investors worried about the Federal Reserve's interest-rate hiking path as they awaited minutes from its December meeting.

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