The key equity benchmarks ended with small cuts after a volatile session on Friday. The Nifty closed a tad below the 15,300 level after hitting the day's low of 15,183.40 in morning trade. Pharma, oil & gas, consumer durables and auto stocks declined while private banks and financials managed to end in the green. Fears loomed across markets that aggressive interest rate hikes enacted by global central banks to rein in surging inflation could possibly lead to a recession.
As per provisional closing data, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, declined 135.37 points or 0.26% to 51,360.42. The Nifty 50 index fell 67.10 points or 0.44% to 15,293.50.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index lost 0.68% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index slipped 0.88%.
The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 1089 shares rose and 2236 shares fell. A total of 96 shares were unchanged.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty Pharma index fell 2.12% to 11,810.80. The index has declined 3.67% in two sessions.
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Laurus Labs (down 5.28%), Dr Reddys Laboratories (down 3.58%), Cipla (down 3.09%), Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries (down 3.03%) and Gland Pharma (down 2.99%) were the top index losers.
Among the other losers were Biocon (down 2.67%), Divis Laboratories (down 2.52%), Zydus Lifesciences (down 2.3%), Torrent Pharmaceuticals (down 1.68%) and Aurobindo Pharma (down 1.53%).
On the other hand, Strides Pharma Science (up 4.9%), Alkem Laboratories (up 1.59%) and Granules India (up 0.96%) turned up.
Stocks in Spotlight:
Wipro declined 3.79%. Eros Investments has signed an alliance agreement with Wipro to evolve and scale the artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) based content localization solution.
Grasim Industries rose 0.66%. Pavan Jain has been appointed as the company's new CFO and key Managerial Personnel, effective August 15.
Prime Focus tumbled 4.96% after the company announced that its UK-based subsidiary DNEG and Sports Ventures Acquisition Corp. mutually agreed to terminate their previously announced business combination agreement, effective immediately.
Ratnamani Metals & Tubes slumped 4.16%. The company announced that it has secured new orders aggregating to Rs 203 crore including export orders worth Rs 187 crore, expected to be executed within the financial year 2022-23.
Matrimony.com shed 0.13%. A meeting of the buyback committee of the board of directors of Matrimony.com is scheduled to be held on 22 June 2022, to consider and approve the final terms and conditions of the buyback of equity shares of the company.
RITES fell 1.71%. The PSU firm secured an operation and maintenance work order from Container Corporation of India for Rs 364.56 crore.
Ahluwalia Contracts (India) lost 0.65%. The company said it won an order for construction of National Police Academy in Maharajgunj, Nepal. The total work order for the joint venture project stood at Rs 630.95 crore. The company's share in the project is 70%, amounting to approximately Rs 442 crore.
Further, the company also received an order for the re-construction of Assam Bhavan Chanakyapuri in Delhi for Rs 62 crore.
Delta Corp rallied 12.51%. The firm said that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Deltatech Gaming (DGL), has filed a draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for an initial public offer.
The IPO will comprise a fresh issue of equity shares of face value of Re 1 each, for an amount aggregating up to Rs 300 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of the equity shares held by the company, for an amount aggregating up to 250 crore.
Global Markets:
European stocks advanced while Asian markets ended mixed on Friday, as investors weigh the possibility of aggressive monetary policy tightening leading to a recession.
Data on Friday confirmed euro zone inflation at a record high of 8.1% year-on-year in May.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan on Friday decided to maintain its ultra-loose monetary policy stance, diverging substantially from its global peers.
US stock indexes closed sharply lower on Thursday in a broad sell-off as recession fears grew following moves by central banks around the globe to stamp out rising inflation after the Federal Reserve's largest rate hike since 1994.
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