Sensex drops 100 points, Nifty below 12,250; Vodafone Idea jumps 16%, M&M drops over 1%

Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty opened lower on Tuesday as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revised its 2019 growth forecast for India to 4.8 per cent from its October projection of 6.1 per cent. At 9.50 AM, S&P BSE Sensex was trading 53 points or 0.13 per cent lower at 41,486 points while broader Nifty 50 index was ruling 12,216 points, down 8 points or 0.07 per cent. On the Sensex pack, Asian Paints, Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M), Tata Steel, Hero MotoCorp, ITC were the top losers. Conversely, IndusInd Bank, ONGC, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance were the top gainers.

In the opening deals, S&P BSE Sensex slipped over 200 points and was trading at 41,307.59 points, while the Nifty 50 dropped 59.60 points or 0.49 per cent to 12,164.95. The shares of Vodafone Idea were trading at Rs 5.64, up 16 per cent after it moved to Supreme Court on Monday in a bid to delay payments that are due Thursday

“The expectations from the budget are high this time around given the current economic slowdown. This is likely to drive momentum across sectors. Further, the earnings announcement from corporates is likely to induce stock-specific volatility in the coming sessions. Therefore, we would recommend traders to remain cautious and hedge their risky leveraged positions,” Ajit Mishra, VP – Research, Religare Broking Ltd, said.

Nifty sectoral indices were trading mixed. The Nifty Auto was trading in red weighed by weakness in Mahindra and Mahindra, Hero Moto Corp and Maruti; followed by Nifty FMCG, Nifty IT, Nifty Metal and Nifty Realty. On the other hand, Nifty Bank gained 42 points led by gains in RBL Bank, Federal Bank, IDFC First Bank, IndusInd Bank and State Bank of India. In the broader markets, the S&P BSE MidCap index was trading 22 points or 0.14 per cent higher at 15641 points, while the S&P BSE SmallCap index gained 29 points or 0.20 per cent.

Around 25 companies including Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL), Polycab India, IndiaMART InterMESH, Havells, ICICI Prudential Life, and HDFC AMC are scheduled to release their December quarterly results today.

Source: Financial Express