Nifty slides below 17,750 mark; auto shares decline

The domestic equity benchmarks traded with minor losses in mid-morning trade. The Nifty slipped below the 17,750 merk after hitting day's high of 17,811.15 in early trade. PSU bank, realty and IT shares advanced while FMCG, auto and oil & gas shares declined.

At 11:29 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 103.28 points or 0.17% to 60,403.62. The Nifty 50 index lost 21.55 points or 0.12% to 17,743.05.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index slipped 0.09 while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index shed 0.21%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,543 shares rose, and 1,744 shares fell. A total of 151 shares were unchanged.

The RBI policy review meeting began on 6 February and concludes on 8 February 2023. The central bank is projected to raise the repo rate but at a slower pace. In its December monetary policy committee meeting, the RBI raised the policy repo rate by 35 basis points (bps) to 6.25%.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Auto index declined 0.73% to 13,262.85. The index fell 0.96% in two trading sessions.

Tube Investments of India (down 1.92%), Sona BLW Precision Forgings (down 1.72%), Hero MotoCorp (down 1.67%), Tata Motors (down 1.26%), Bharat Forge (down 1.01%), Maruti Suzuki India (down 0.84%), MRF (down 0.61%), TVS Motor Company (down 0.44%), Balkrishna Industries (down 0.35%) and Bosch (down 0.32%) slipped.

Stocks in Spotlight:

BLS International Services surged 6.42% to Rs 192.35 after the company's consolidated net profit jumped 79.7% to Rs 50.70 crore on 92.9% increase in net sales to Rs 437.90 crore in Q3 December 2022 over Q3 December 2023.

Muthoot Finance fell 2.18% to Rs 1,014.80 after the NBFC's standalone net profit slipped 12.4% to Rs 901.65 crore on 7.1% decrease in total income to Rs 2,667.10 crore in Q3 FY23 over Q3 FY22. Sequentially, the NBFC's net profit and total income in Q3 FY23 rose 3.97% and 6.53%, respectively.

UltraTech Cement The cement major on Monday announced that it has commissioned 1.5 MTPA brownfield cement grinding unit at Jharsuguda, Odisha. This forms part of the on-going capacity expansion, said the company. The company's total cement capacity in Odisha has increased to 4.1 million tonnes per annum (mtpa).

Global markets:

Asian stocks were trading mostly higher on Tuesday, as investors digested the Reserve Bank of Australia's interest rate hike of 25 basis points, which was in line with expectations.

US stocks ended lower on Monday as investors shifted gears after considering the possibility that the Federal Reserve may take longer to start cutting interest rates.

Traders are keeping a close eye on speeches by Fed officials this week, including Chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday, for any change in the central bank's rhetoric after data last week showed services activity was strong in January as well as strong job growth.

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