Sensex slips 173 pts, Nifty below 17,350 mark

The key equity barometers reversed gains and slipped into the negative terrain in the mid-morning trade. The Nifty traded below the 17,350 mark after hitting the day's high of 17,490.70 in the morning trade. IT, metal and healthcare shares were in demand while, PSU bank, realty and oil & gas stocks dragged. Trading was volatile due to the expiry of weekly index options on the NSE today.

At 11:27 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 173.35 points or 0.30% to 58,177.18. The Nifty 50 index declined 56.90 points or 0.33% to 17,331.25.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index shed 0.35% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.16%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1,626 shares rose and 1,500 shares fell. A total of 169 shares were unchanged.

Economy:

The Reserve Bank of India's rate-setting panel on Wednesday began its three-day deliberations on the next bi-monthly monetary policy. The Monetary Policy Committee is scheduled to announce its decision on August 5. While a 25 bps hike is ruled out, market opinions are reportedly split between a 35 bps hike and a 50 bps hike.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Metal index rose 1.98% to 5,663.35. The index shed 0.45% in two trading sessions.

APL Apollo Tubes (up 4.16%), Jindal Steel & Power (up 4.14%), Hindalco Industries (up 3.75%), Jindal Stainless (up 2.87%), JSW Steel (up 2.76%), National Aluminium Company (up 2.07%), Steel Authority of India (up 1.96%), Tata Steel (up 1.96%), NMDC (up 1.89%) and Vedanta (up 1.51%) jumped.

On the other hand, Ratnamani Metals & Tubes (down 0.96%), Welspun Corp (down 0.02%), edged lower.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Vodafone Idea fell 2.74%. The telco reported consolidated net loss of Rs 7,296.7 crore in Q1 FY23 as against net loss of Rs 6,563.1 crore in Q4 FY22 and net loss of Rs 7,319.1 crore in Q1 FY22. On a consolidated basis, revenue for the quarter was Rs 10,410.1 crore, a QoQ improvement of 1.7% (up 13.7% YoY). On a YoY basis, revenue growth was strong at 13.7%, highest since merger.

ARPU (average revenue per user) improved to Rs 128, up 3.2% QoQ and higher by 23.4% YoY, aided by the tariff hikes. The subscriber base declined to 240.4 million as against 243.8 million in Q4 FY22. However, the 4G subscriber base continued to grow and with 1.0 million customers added in Q1, 4G base now stands at 119 million.

Fineotex Chemical surged 9.09% after ace investor Ashish Kacholia bought a 0.5% stake of the company through open market transactions. Ashish Kacholia bought 5.5 lakh equity shares of the company, or a 0.5% stake, through open market transactions, raising his shareholding to 2.43% from 1.94% earlier.

Global Markets:

Asian stocks are trading higher on Thursday following the rally on Wall Street. Investors move on from the tensions over U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's controversial visit to Taiwan. Pelosi met with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday amid warnings from Beijing. Pelosi has since left the self-ruled island that China views as a runaway province to continue with her Asia tour.

Wall Street ended sharply higher on Wednesday, with strong profit forecasts from PayPal and CVS Health Corp lifting sentiment. A better-than-expected services PMI reading for July gave investors confidence amid concerns about a U.S. recession.

The US services industry unexpectedly picked up in July as new orders grew solidly. The ISM's non-manufacturing PMI rebounded to a reading of 56.7 last month from 55.3 in June, ending three straight monthly declines.

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