Trendlyne Analysis

Nifty 50 closes in the red with the Indian volatility index, India VIX rising 8.9%. Asian indices close mixed after recouping some losses last week on hopes of a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. US indices continued their climb on Friday after the US Federal Reserve commenced the interest rate hikes with an expected quarter percentage point on Thursday. Crude oil prices rise to trade higher as investors fear its supply chain disruption with the war in Ukraine showing no sign of stopping.

Nifty Smallcap 100 closes in the green despite the benchmark index closing lower than Thursday’s level. Nifty Midcap 100 gives up its gains towards the end of the trading session to close in the red. Nifty Metal closes sharply higher while Nifty Bank and Nifty FMCG close in the red. Nifty IT closes lower tracking the NASDAQ 100 futures, which is trading in the red.

Markets fell in today's trading. Nifty 50 closed at 17,117.60 (-169.5, -1.0%), BSE Sensex closed at 57,292.49 (-571.4, -1.0%) while the broader Nifty 500 closed at 14,602.35 (-119.4, -0.8%).

Market breadth is in the red. Of the 1,904 stocks traded today, 758 were on the uptick, and 1,103 were down.

• AIA Engineering, KPR Mill, WABCO India, and Vardhman Textiles trading with higher volumes as compared to Thursday.

• Greaves Cotton rises as its retail business Greaves Retail enters a partnership with Bounce Infinity, a two-wheeler electric ride-sharing app, to provide battery swapping stations for Greaves electric vehicles (EV). Bounce Infinity launched its in-house EV mobility solutions for Bounce in June 2019.

• ICICI Securities maintains a ‘Buy’ rating on Prince Pipes & Fittings but has reduced its target price to Rs 804 from Rs 833, indicating a 23% upside. The brokerage remains bullish for the company’s long-term prospects due to its comprehensive product portfolio, focus on enhancing distribution reach, and emphasis on branding.

• ICICI Securities maintains a ‘BUY’ rating on Shyam Metallics with a target price of Rs 400, indicating an upside of 23.5%. The brokerage remains positive as the company announces a capex of Rs 990 crore in addition to the committed capex of Rs 3,000 crore to be incurred over the next three-four years. The brokerage expects the company’s revenue to grow at 24% CAGR over FY21-FY24.

• NBCC surges on receiving work orders from the Ladakh government worth Rs 500 crore. The work order involves comprehensive design, engineering, and project management consultancy services.

• Jubilant Pharmova is trading with more than nine times its weekly average trading volume. Valiant Organics, Uflex, Wockhardt and Aurobindo Pharma are trading at more than three times their weekly average trading volumes.

• Reliance Industries' wholly owned subsidiary i.e. Reliance Retail Ventures is set to acquire 89% stake in Purple Panda Fashions for Rs 950 crore. The target company owns women's innerwear and loungewear D2C brand Clovia. Reliance Industries looks to strengthen its innerwear portfolio which already consists of brands like Zivame and Amante with this acquisition.

• Godrej Properties achieves sales worth Rs 1,002 crore in FY22 for it's township project Riverhills in Mahalunge, Pune. Since the launch of their first phase in the township in September 2019, the company has sold over 3,600 homes for a booking value of over Rs 2,100 crore.

• Aurobindo Pharma and Strides Pharma are rising as they partner with Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) to commercialize the generic version of Pfizer’s COVID-19 oral treatment across 95 low and middle-income countries. Kovidax is a generic version of Pfizer’s COVID-19 oral treatment that consists of Nirmatrelvir tablets co-administered with Ritonavir tablets. Strides Pharma will manufacture Kovidax at its flagship facility in Bengaluru.

• Maruti Suzuki rises after its parent company Suzuki Motor Corp announces investment of Rs 10,450 crore in Suzuki Motor Gujarat, its wholly owned subsidiary, to produce electric vehicles and batteries. The planned investment outlay will be spent over a period of 4 years. Maruti Suzuki India handles the sales and marketing of products manufactured by Suzuki Motor Gujarat.

• Wockhardt enters into a collaboration agreement with Serum Life Sciences, UK, a subsidiary of the Serum Institute of India (SII). This collaboration is a profit-sharing arrangement between the two parties with an overall term of 15 years. The companies expect to deliver up to an additional 150 million doses of multiple vaccines each year from SII's new facility in the UK.

• Ruchi Soya announces a price band of Rs 615 - 650 a share for its Rs 4,300 crore follow-on public offer. The issue opens on March 24 and closes on March 28, 2022. The minimum bid lot is 21 and in multiples of 21 equity shares thereafter. Through this issue, the promoters of the company seek to reduce their shareholding to comply with the minimum shareholding rules of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

• Jindal Steel & Power’s (JSP) wholly-owned subsidiary Jindal Steel & Power (Mauritius) prepays $357 million to its lenders. Post this payment JSP’s overseas debt comes down to $130 million from $1.8 billion. Majority of the overseas debt now rests with its Australian subsidiary worth $113 million which the company plans to repay by September 2022.

Riding High:

Largecap and midcap gainers today include Aurobindo Pharma Ltd. (679.40, 6.10%), Oil India Ltd. (233.20, 6.05%) and Vedanta Ltd. (400.05, 5.71%).

Downers:

Largecap and midcap losers today include Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd. (910.15, -9.38%), Petronet LNG Ltd. (194.85, -5.62%) and GAIL (India) Ltd. (144.30, -4.63%).

Volume Rockets

16 stocks in BSE 500 are trading on high volumes today.

Top high volume gainers on BSE included Wockhardt Ltd. (326.35, 11.67%), Jubilant Pharmova Ltd. (449.65, 10.36%) and Sterlite Technologies Ltd. (209.15, 9.76%).

Top high volume loser on BSE was Procter & Gamble Health Ltd. (4,342.20, -0.41%).

Uflex Ltd. (610.15, 8.37%) was trading at 8.8 times of weekly average. Delta Corp Ltd. (312.75, 9.60%) and Aurobindo Pharma Ltd. (679.40, 6.10%) were trading with volumes 5.8 and 4.1 times weekly average respectively on BSE at the time of posting this article.

BSE 500: highs, lows and moving averages

14 stocks hit their 52-week highs, while 2 stocks hit their 52-week lows.

Stocks touching their year highs included - Cummins India Ltd. (1,054.00, 3.00%), Delta Corp Ltd. (312.75, 9.60%) and Gujarat State Fertilizer & Chemicals Ltd. (148.95, 1.46%).

Stocks making new 52 weeks lows included - Thyrocare Technologies Ltd. (772.85, -0.95%) and Sequent Scientific Ltd. (122.65, -0.93%).

19 stocks climbed above their 200 day SMA including Sun Pharma Advanced Research Company Ltd. (292.90, 7.47%) and IDBI Bank Ltd. (44.75, 4.43%). 11 stocks slipped below their 200 SMA including Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd. (910.15, -9.38%) and GAIL (India) Ltd. (144.30, -4.63%).