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Sensex Tumbles 600 Points Tracking Global Selloff; HDFC & Tata Steel Top Losers
Thu, 4 Mar 09:30 am

A fresh spike in US bond yields and a firm dollar triggered a selloff in Asian share markets today.

Japan's Nikkei tanked 1.9%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 2.4%. China's Shanghai Composite also fell 1.6%.

In US stock markets, Wall Street indices fell on Wednesday as investors sold off technology stocks as US jobs data disappointed investors.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.4% while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 361 points, or 2.7%.

The US yield curve steepened overnight. The gap between yields on two- and 10-year Treasury notes widened to as much as 135.4 basis points on Wednesday, the most since February 26, when the curve had steepened by the most since 2015.

In early trade today, the 10-year Treasury yield crept higher to 1.48%, though off the one-year high of 1.61% struck last week.

Back home, Indian share markets have opened on a negative note, following the trend on SGX Nifty and amid weak signals from Asian markets.

The BSE Sensex is trading down by 559 points. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading lower by 164 points.

ONGC is among the top gainers today. HDFC, on the other hand, is among the top losers today.

The BSE Mid Cap index has opened down by 0.4%. The BSE Small Cap index is trading lower by 0.1%.

Barring IT stocks, all sectoral indices are trading on a negative note with stocks in the banking sector and metal sector witnessing most of the selling pressure.

Shares of Deepak Nitrite and Supreme Industries hit their 52-week highs today.

The rupee is trading at 73.04 against the US$.

Gold prices are trading down by 0.4% at Rs 44,788 per 10 grams.

In global markets, gold edged higher today to recover from a near nine-month low hit in the previous session, although higher US Treasury yields continued to weigh on the non-yielding bullion's appeal.

Speaking of the current stock market scenario, note that the BSE Small-cap index broke past the 21,000- barrier yesterday and settled at 21,085.

The index had crashed to a multi-year low of 8.6k back in March 2020. Who would have thought that in less than a year, the index will come roaring back and go up a massive 133%?

While caution is indeed warranted, Richa Agrawal, Research Analyst at Equitymaster, thinks there is still a lot more steam left to this smallcap rally.

Despite rallying more than 130% since the March 2020 lows, Richa believes small-cap stocks are set for a massive up move in 2021 and beyond.

Here's what she wrote in a recent edition of Profit Hunter...

  • The P/E for smallcap index doesn't make sense. There are thousands of listed small companies. Some have negative earnings. The base is not a valid data to work with.

    That said, the closest proxy to relative valuations is the Smallcap to Sensex ratio,

    Historically, this ratio has averaged 0.43x. In the previous mega runs of the smallcap index, this ratio has gone as high as 0.75x.

    In January 2018, when smallcaps peaked, the ratio was at 0.58x.

    Guess where this ratio is now after a 100% run up in the smallcap index?

    0.38.

    It's lower than the median over 2 decades.

Richa believes if you focus on the quality of business, margin of safety in valuations, and an optimum asset allocation, you are likely to create huge wealth for yourself.

Moving on to stock specific news...

Adani Ports & SEZ is among the top buzzing stocks today.

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zones has agreed to buy a Rs 19.54-billion stake in Gangavaram Port (GPL) from Warburg Pincus.

Adani Ports is acquiring about 163 million shares at Rs 120 apiece, which works out to Rs 19.54 billion.

Windy Lakeside Investment, an affiliate of the private equity firm, will sell its 31.5% in the port to the Adani Group firm, according to an exchange filing.

Adani Ports is also in talks with promoters DVS Raju and Family for their 58.1% stake (about 300 million shares) in the port. The remaining 10.4% is held by the Government of Andhra Pradesh.

The port, located in the northern part of the state close to Vizag, has a capacity of 64 million metric tonnes. It was established under concession from the state that extends till 2059.

Reportedly, GPL is debt free with a cash balance of over Rs 5 billion.

After announcing the deal, in an analyst call, Adani Ports said Warburg Pincus has been trying to sell the port for the last five years. The PE firm was looking to sell due to end of life of their invested funds.

Meanwhile, Adani Ports also signed a scheme of arrangement with group subsidiaries Brahmi Tracks Management Services, Sarguja Rail Corridor, according to another filing.

The objective of the scheme is to consolidate the rail assets under one entity; tap private partnership opportunity for developing the first-mile, last-mile connectivity and increasing the network capacity for rail transport, the company said.

Adani Ports share price has opened the day up by 2%.

Speaking of the stock markets, India's #1 trader, Vijay Bhambwani talks about why it's prudent to be extra cautious during the month of March, in his latest video for Fast Profits Daily.

Tune in to the video below to find out more:

Moving on to news from the energy sector, as per an article in The Economic Times, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is planning to monetise its hydrogen-producing facilities to raise about Rs 100 billion.

The nation's largest oil refiner is aiming to hive off some of its hydrogen-producing units and sulphur recovery facilities at its refineries to a separate entity and sell stakes in it to one or more private companies.

The company has proposed the idea to the government, which is studying it. The plan to monetise the hydrogen-producing facilities was in response to the government's proposal to sell stakes in oil and gas pipelines of IOC, GAIL and HPCL.

The government expects IOC, GAIL and HPCL to raise Rs 170 billion by selling stakes in their pipelines through the infrastructure investment trust route in the next financial year. Of this, Rs 80 billion is targeted from Indian Oil's pipelines and the remainder equally from GAIL and Hindustan Petroleum.

Indian Oil's executives are of the view that monetisation of some of its hydrogen-producing units can help generate Rs 100-120 billion, although it would mean selling a significant stake in them to private companies.

IOC share price has opened the day down by 0.6%.

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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