Sensex, Nifty Plunge after Russia Sets Ukraine's Nuclear Plant on Fire; Asian Paints, Hero MotoCorp & Maruti Top Losers

Fri, 4 Mar 10:30 am

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Asian share markets took a beating today as a report of a nuclear power plant on fire amid continued fierce fighting between Ukraine and Russian troops further unnerved investors.

The Hang Seng and the Shanghai Composite are trading lower by 2.7% and 0.7%, respectively. The Nikkei is trading down by 2.5%.

In US stock markets, Wall Street indices ended lower on Thursday, with growth stocks including Tesla and Amazon denting the Nasdaq, as the Ukraine crisis kept investors on edge.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3%, while the S&P 500 lost 0.5%. The Nasdaq Composite plunged 1.6%.

Tesla dropped 4.6% and Amazon lost 2.7%, both contributing more than any other stocks to the Nasdaq's steep decline.

Back home, Indian share markets are trading deep in the red.

In line with weak global market sentiment, benchmark indices started to trade sharply lower today.

The BSE Sensex is trading down by 782 points. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading lower by 233 points.

UPL is among the top gainers today. Asian Paints and Hero MotoCorp, on the other hand, are among the top losers today.

The BSE Mid Cap index is down 1.4% while the BSE Small Cap index is down 0.9%.

Barring metal, all sectoral indices are trading in red with stocks in the automobile sector, realty sector and telecom sector witnessing most of the selling.

Shares of Adani Transmission and Hindalco hit their 52-week highs today.

The rupee is trading at 76.05 against the US$.

Gold prices are trading up by 0.4% at Rs 51,978 per 10 grams.

Meanwhile, silver prices are trading at Rs 67,008 per kg.

Gold rose today, eyeing its best weekly gain since May 2021, as investors scrambled for safe-haven assets after Russia attacked a nuclear power plant in Ukraine.

Crude oil prices rebounded as the disruption of Russian oil exports because of western sanctions outweighed the prospect of more Iranian supplies from a possible nuclear deal.

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In news from the financial markets, the value of foreign portfolio investor (FPI) holdings in domestic equities reached US$ 654 bn in three months ended December 2021, a drop of nearly 2% from the preceding quarter.

According to a leading financial daily, this was largely on the back of a massive sell-off by foreign investors and a correction in the Indian equity markets, especially in the large and mid-cap sectors.

As of December 2020, the value of FPI investments in Indian equities had been US$ 518 bn.

Consequently, FPIs' contribution to Indian equity-market capitalisation also fell during the quarter under review to 18.3% from 19% for the three months ended September 2021.

However, despite significant sell-offs in the last quarter of 2021, FPIs remained net buyers in the Indian equities to the tune of US$ 3.76 bn for the full calendar year, which was significantly lower than the net inflow of US$ 8.42 bn in 2020.

Moving on to stock specific news...

Vodafone Idea is among the top buzzing stocks today.

Vodafone Idea's board on Thursday approved raising Rs 145 bn from its promoters - UK's Vodafone Group and India's Aditya Birla group and external investors.

The telecom company will raise Rs 45 bn via a preferential share issue at Rs 13.30 a share to its promoters or its related entities. Of this, the Vodafone Group's share will be Rs 33.8 bn which will be paid from funds raised by the partial sale of its stake in Indus Towers.

The board also cleared raising another Rs 100 bn via equity and debt instruments.

The board further approved the convening of an extraordinary general meeting of the operator on Saturday, 26 March 2022, to approve the fund-raising moves.

In its statement, the Vodafone Group said it had raised Rs 14.2 bn by selling 63.6 m shares, or 2.4%, in Indus Towers at Rs 226.84 per share.

It further plans to sell 127.1 m shares, or 4.7%, in Indus Tower to Bharti Airtel for Rs 224.6 per share, which will net the UK telecom major under Rs 29 bn.

After selling a 7.1% stake in Indus, Vodafone would retain 567.2 m shares, or 21%.

In a statement to exchanges, Vodafone said it continues to be in discussions with several interested parties in relation to a potential sale of the residual shareholding.

Shares of Vodafone Idea are trading 4% lower today. They had rallied 7% yesterday.

To know more, check out Vodafone Idea's latest shareholding pattern.

Speaking of stock markets, in his latest video for Fast Profits Daily, Brijesh Bhatia discusses what should be your war-time trading strategy.

Tune in to the below video to find out more:

Moving on to news from the finance sector, the market regulator in its investigation against Indiabulls Housing Finance has found the mortgage financier non-compliant with regards to unavailability of certain information on its website as well as its internal policy.

It has directed the company to take corrective measures and inform the stock exchanges in a months' time.

Several public interest litigations (PILs) and FIRs were filed against Indiabulls Housing Finance back in 2019, alleging irregularities, siphoning of funds, and other violations committed by the promoters of the company.

Following that, the regulator's corporate finance investigation department had started an investigation against the company in early 2020, based on those allegations.

However, the watchdog has not found any wrongdoing on part of the company with respect to the specific allegations made against it in the various PIL and the complaints.

The ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) had looked into the books of the company following the complaints and had stated in the Delhi High Court that the PILs raised concerns and allegations based on loans extended by Indiabulls Housing Finance to DLF, Amricorp, ADRG, Vatika and Chordia.

How the above developments pan out in the coming months remains to be seen.

To know what's moving the Indian stock markets today, check out the most recent share market updates here.

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