Sensex slips 456 pts, Nifty below 18,000 level, TCS drops over 2%

The domestic equity benchmarks traded near the day's low with deep cuts in morning trade. The Nifty traded below the key 18,000 level. Auto, metal, and media stocks advanced while PSU bank, IT and bank shares corrected.

At 10:30IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 456.42 points or 0.75% to 60,290.89. The Nifty 50 index lost 116.65 points or 0.64% to 17,984.55.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index declined 0.26% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index shed 0.13%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,480 shares rose and 1,652 shares fell. A total of 171 shares were unchanged.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to hold a pre-budget meeting with economists and sectoral experts at NITI Aayog on 13 January 2023 to discuss the state of the economy and measures to accelerate growth, as per reports. The meeting will also be attended by several Union ministers. The 2023-24 Budget is set to be presented in Parliament on February 1.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty IT index declined 1.38% to 28,351.50. The index rallied 2.83% in the past trading session.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) (down 2.36%), Persistent Systems Ltd (down 1.7%), Infosys Ltd (down 1.57%), L&T Technology Services Ltd (down 1.39%), LTI Mindtree Ltd (down 1.38%), Tech Mahindra Ltd (down 1.35%), Mphasis Ltd (down 1.25%), Coforge Ltd (down 1.15%), Wipro Ltd (down 0.84%) and HCL Technologies Ltd (down 0.78%) edged lower.

TCS fell 2.36%. The IT major's consolidated net profit rose 3.98% to Rs 10846 crore on 5.28% increase in net sales to Rs 58,229 crore in Q3 FY23 over Q2 FY23. On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the IT major's net profit rose 11.02% and net sales rose 19.11% in Q3 FY23. TCS' workforce was at 613,974 as on 31 December 2022, a net reduction of 2,197 during the quarter. IT services attrition on an LTM basis trended down to 21.3% and is expected to fall further in the coming quarters.

The board declared a third interim dividend of Rs 8 and a special dividend of Rs 67 per share of Re 1 each of the company. The record date is 17 January 2023.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Tata Motors surged 6.11% after the auto major said that Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) recorded a 15% growth in wholesales to 79,591 units in Q3 FY23 over Q3 FY22. Wholesale volumes rose 5.7% sequentially, with a significant increase in New Range Rover and New Range Rover Sport production, reflecting gradual improvement in chip supplies. Retail sales for the third quarter were 84,827 units, up 5.9% YoY but down 3.7% QoQ, reflecting timing between retails and wholesales, the company stated.

Meanwhile, The Tata Motors Group global wholesales in Q3 FY23, including Jaguar Land Rover, were at 3,22,556 units, higher by 13%, as compared to Q3 FY22.

JSW Ispat Special Products rose 0.47%. The company said that crude steel production in Q3 FY23 was 0.10 million tonnes, down by 30% from 0.14 million tones recorded in the same period last year. The steel production is significantly higher as compared with 0.03 million tones tons produced in Q2 FY23.

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