Share Market updates: Sensex falls 366 points, Nifty ends below 16,500; banking shares top losers

Good afternoon!

On Wednesday, the Indian equity market snapped two sessions of gaining streak following a broad-based selloff in global markets as the Russia-Ukraine crisis escalated.

Sensex settled 778.38 points or 1.38 per cent lower at 55,468.90 and Nifty plunged 187.95 points or 1.12 per cent to 16,605.95.

What's next? Here's a look at the latest updates of the market today!

3:34 pm: Market ends in red

Sensex falls 366 points to 55,102 and Nifty loses 107 points to 16,498.

3:25 pm: Muthoot Finance stock rises 4% after Motilal Oswal assigns buy call

Shares of Muthoot Finance rose 4% today after the financial services firm Motilal Oswal announced a buy call on the gold financing firm. The brokerage set a target of Rs 1,750, an upside of 26% to the previous close.
The stock touched an intra day high of Rs 1444, up 4% on BSE. Muthoot  Finance shares were trading higher than 5 day and 20 day moving averages but lower than 50 day, 100 day and 200 day moving averages

2:57 pm: Market check

Sensex falls 297 points to 55,171 and Nifty loses 92 points to 16,510.

2:30 pm: UPL to sell 49.98% stake in subsidiary ANSL

Agro-chemicals major UPL Ltd on Thursday said it will sell 49.98 per cent equity in its non-operational subsidiary firm Agri Net Solutions Ltd (ANSL) to promotor group entity Nerka Chemicals for Rs 1.75 crore.

1:56 pm: Market check

Sensex falls 99 points to 55,369 and Nifty loses 41 points to 16,564

1: 55 pm: Motilal Oswal assigns buy call on Muthoot Finance

Motilal says Muthoot Finance ticks all the right boxes: a) Strong execution track record of the management and the next generation of the family being groomed to take up leadership positions in the future; b) Strong brand presence and deep penetration, which enhances customer confidence in the franchise; c) Robust risk management control and processes to further scale up the operationally intensive Gold Lending business; and d) Ability to keep driving operating efficiencies can lead to 15% AUM and PAT CAGR over FY22-24E.

1:51 pm: Sensex losers

 Top Sensex losers are UltraTech Cement, Asian Paints and Dr Reddy's falling up to 5.04%.

1:41 pm: Sensex gainers

 Top Sensex gainers are  Wipro, PowerGrid, Tech Mahindra, HCL Tech, Tata Steel, rising up to 3.13%.

1:31 pm: Market check

Sensex falls 405 points to 55,059 and Nifty falls 106 points to 16,499.

1:00 pm: BSE market cap stands at Rs 251.06 lakh crore in afternoon session.

12:47 pm: Market check

Sensex falls 154 points to 55,314 and Nifty trades near 16,550, down 47 points.

12:18 pm: Coal India stock nears 52-week high on growth in February output

Shares of Coal India approached their 52-week high today after a report said the firm's subsidiary Northern Coalfields was set to cross its output target of 119 million tonne for the current fiscal.The  share rose 7.11% to Rs 198 against the previous close of Rs 184.85 on BSE.

The share touched a 52-week high of Rs 203.85 on October 6, 2021 and a 52 week-low of Rs 123.45 on May 19,2021.

11:55 am: Market check

Equity benchmark Sensex was trading over 100 points higher at 55,603 and Nifty rose over 30 points to 16,636.

11:30 am: IT stocks shine

Shares of IT companies were trading higher on Thursday. Tech Mahindra, Wipro, HCL Tech were trading 3 per cent higher. Infosys and TCS were among the other top gainers on Sensex.

11:00 am: Trading on NSE IFSC to begin today

Indian retail investors will now be able to buy and sell stocks of companies like Apple, Google, Alphabet and other known listed US companies.

NSE International Exchange (NSE IFSC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE), had announced trading in select US Stocks which will be facilitated through the NSE IFSC platform.

10:40 am: Vedanta stock hits 52-week high after board clears third interim dividend

Shares of Vedanta hit a fresh 52- week high today after the firm's board approved a third interim dividend of Rs 13 per equity share. The dividend on a face value of rupee 1 per share for the current financial year 2021-2022, amounts to Rs 4,832 crore. 

Vedanta stock opened with a gain of 3.27% at Rs 400 against the previous close of Rs 387.35 on BSE. The stock touched an intraday high of Rs 400.95, rising 3.51% on BSE. 

10:15 am: Brightcom shares locked in 5% lower circuit

Shares of Brightcom Group Limited crashed 5 per cent and were locked in the lower circuit for the second straight session on Thursday after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) ordered a forensic audit regarding the impairment of assets in FY2019-20.

9:40 am: Crypto markets slow down after rallying for two days

Cryptocurrency markets have slowed down after showing a significant hike in the past two days. The global market cap fell by 0.67 per cent at $1.92 trillion as of 8:10 AM IST, CoinMarketCap data showed.

Bitcoin fell by 0.76%. per cent in the last 24 hours. The ETH token showed a slight growth of 0.02%. USDT Tether fell by 0.02 per cent.

9:16 am: Market opening

The benchmark indices opened higher amid positive global cues. Equity benchmark Sensex zoomed over 470 points to 55,942.54 and Nifty rose over 140 points to 16,748.40.

Tata Steel and IndusInd Bank were the top gainers, followed by M&M, SBI, NTPC and Bajaj twins.

9:00 am: Pre-market comment by Mohit Nigam, Head - PMS

Today the elections in the major state of UP are entering the sixth phase and with the final phase just a few days away, the strong uptick in the fuel price is expected after the elections. 

Due to the war between Ukraine and Russia, the crude prices have reached over $116 per barrel and are expected to rise further. With the Russian invasion intensifying and the Ukrainian resistance strong, the end to the war is expected to take some time. 

Fitch has downgraded Russian sovereign debt to junk, the biggest on any European nation since world war II. This comes on the back of the economic sanctions imposed by the many world nations on Russia. 

Among some stock-specific actions, Sterlite tech has launched an industry-first end-to-end 5G enterprise solution. And UPL has approved the buyback of Rs 1,100 crores at Rs 875. With SGX Nifty giving flattish signals for the opening. 

The markets are expected to stay in the range for today, Support and Resistance for Nifty 16,500 and 16,800, and for the Bank Nifty it's expected to be around 35,000 to 35,700.

8:50 am: Oil prices jump, Brent above $116 per barrel on supply disruptions

Oil prices extended their rally on Thursday, with Brent rising above $116 a barrel, as trade disruption and shipping issues from Russian sanctions over the Ukraine crisis sparked supply worries while U.S. crude stocks fell to multi-year lows.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies including Russia have decided to maintain an increase in output by 400,000 barrels per day in March despite the price surge, ignoring the Ukraine crisis during their talks and snubbing calls from consumers for more crude.

8:40 am: Positive global cues

Wall Street ended sharply higher on Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signalled the central bank would likely raise interest rates less than some investors had feared.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.79% to end at 33,891.35 points, while the S&P 500 gained 1.86% to 4,386.54. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.62% to 13,752.02.

Asian shares crept higher on Thursday after reassuring comments from the Federal Reserve helped Wall Street rally, though the war in Ukraine sent oil and resource prices spiraling ever higher in a grim omen for global inflation.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan nudged up 0.4% and away from its recent 15-month low. Japan's Nikkei added 1.0%, while the rush to commodities lifted resource-rich Australia 0.9%.

8:35 am: FII and DII action

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 4,338.94 crore on March 2, and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 3,061.70 crore, as per provisional data available on NSE.

8:30 am: SGX Nifty

The Indian equity market is likely to open on a positive note as SGX Nifty was trading higher at 16,673.20.

The Singapore Stock Exchange is considered to be the first indication of the opening of the Indian market.

8:15 am: Market on Wednesday

On Wednesday, the Indian equity market snapped two sessions of gaining streak following a broad-based selloff in global markets as the Russia-Ukraine crisis escalated.

Sensex settled 778.38 points or 1.38 per cent lower at 55,468.90 and Nifty plunged 187.95 points or 1.12 per cent to 16,605.95.

Maruti Suzuki was the top Sensex loser, falling 6 per cent, followed by Dr Reddy's, Asian Paints, ICICI Bank, HDFC and HDFC Bank. Tata Steel, Titan, Reliance and Nestle India were among the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 5.54 per cent.  

BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices lost 39 points and 31 points, respectively. 

On the sectoral front, banking and auto shares led the losses today. BSE bankex fell 938 points to 40,697 and BSE auto plunged 706 points to 23,909. BSE metal index was the top sectoral gainer, rising 951 points to 21,735.