Sensex Falls 372 Points, Nifty Ends Below 17,800; Metal & Auto Stocks Witness Selling

Thu, 18 Nov Closing

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Indian share markets witnessed negative trading activity throughout the day today and ended lower.

Benchmark indices witnessed selling pressure for the third straight day today, amid weak global cues coupled with rising inflation concerns.

Moreover, the tepid listing of the much-hyped shares of One 97 Communications, the operator of Paytm, added to the negative sentiment.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 372 points (down 0.6%).

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed lower by 134 points (down 0.8%).

State Bank of India and IOC were among the top gainers today.

Tata Motors and M&M, on the other hand, were among the top losers today.

The SGX Nifty was trading at 17,772, down by 137 points, at the time of writing.

The BSE Mid Cap index and the BSE Small Cap index ended down by 1.7% and 1.5%, respectively.

Sectoral indices ended on a negative note with stocks in the metal sector, auto sector and engineering sector witnessing selling pressure.

Shares of Escorts Limited and Mindtree hit their respective 52-week highs today.

Asian stock markets ended on a negative note today.

The Hang Seng and the Shanghai Composite ended down by 1.3% and 0.5%, respectively. The Nikkei ended down by 0.3% in today's session.

US stock futures are trading on a positive note today with the Dow Futures trading up by 53 points.

The rupee is trading at 74.24 against the US$.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading down by 0.3% at Rs 49,154 per 10 grams.

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In news from the mining sector, Hindustan Zinc was among the top buzzing stocks today.

The Supreme Court (SC) has cleared the divestment in Hindustan Zinc (HZL). HZL has ceased to be a government company as the government, an ordinary shareholder, has a 29.5% residuary stake.

The court added that the government was entitled to make a decision on divestment shareholding, as long as the process is transparent and realizes the best prices.

Centre sought closure of preliminary inquiry into 2002 Hind Zinc divestment. However, the court held that there existed a prima facie case of violation of divestment norms in the 2002 government stake sale and disallowed the closure. The court directed a regular CBI probe into it now.

In 2014, the central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) moved an application in the court alleging undervaluation of shares during 2002 divestment.

Following the allegations, the apex court stayed any further divestment of government stake in the company in 2016.

In March, the government moved to court seeking a nod for divesting a further stake of 29.54%

Hindustan Zinc is one of the largest integrated producers of zinc and lead and a leading producer of silver.

It has facilities in Rampura Agucha, Chanderiya, Dariba, Kayad and Zawar in Rajasthan, along with zinc-lead processing and refining facilities and a silver refinery at Pantnagar in Uttarakhand.

Hindustan Zinc share price ended the day down by 3.4% on the BSE.

Moving on to news from the telecom sector...

MTNL Shares Surge on Report of Government's Rs 1.3 Tn Revival Plan

Shares of India's state-owned loss-making telecom firm Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) soared as much as 15% today, after a media report said the government has a revival plan in place.

India has drawn up a package worth nearly Rs 1.3 tn to revive state-run telecom companies MTNL and BSNL.

The proposed details are expected to be floated in the cabinet next month, the source reported.

The cash component in package would be Rs 250 bn to Rs 300 bn.

The development comes after the government deferred, earlier this year, the merger of the two state-owned companies due to financial reasons.

The remainder of the package would be split into about Rs 500 bn of spectrum payment dues and Rs 360 bn rupees of pending adjusted gross revenue payments

The company, set up in 1986 by the Indian government, posted a loss of Rs 653 bn for the quarter ended 30 September.

MTNL share price ended the day up by 3.9% on the BSE.

Speaking of PSUs, have a look at the chart below which shows the performance of BSE PSU index compared to BSE Sensex over the past few years.

As can be seen from the chart above, over the last decade, Rs 100 invested in BSE PSU index would have eroded to Rs 80, compared to almost 3x gains for the Sensex.

Here's what Richa Agarwal, lead Smallcap Analyst at Equitymaster, wrote about PSU stocks in one of the edition of Profit Hunter:

• However, it will be folly to paint all PSUs with the same brush. There are some exceptions in this space, which put their private peers to shame.
  
  In a recent editorial, I shared an opportunity in a PSU stock that is riding and enabling an irreversible megatrend - digitisation.

One of Richa's stock recommendation (subscription required) is a stock from this space. This smallcap PSU is leading the digitisation drive from the frontlines.

Richa believes it could be a perfect bet for these uncertain times. Hidden Treasure subscribers can read the recommendation here.

And if you're not a subscriber, here's where you can sign up.

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

For information on how to pick stocks that have the potential to deliver big returns, download our special report now!

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