Sensex Slips 300 Points, Nifty Below 17,250; Bajaj Finance and Tech Mahindra Top Losers

Wed, 15 Dec 10:30 am

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Asian stocks traded are higher today, partly supported by bargain-hunting as investors awaited the US Federal Reserve's monetary policy decision later in the day.

The Nikkei is flat while the Hang Seng is up 0.3%. The Shanghai Composite gained 0.2%.

In US stock markets, Wall Street indices ended lower on Tuesday after data showed producer prices increased more than expected in November, solidifying expectations the Federal Reserve this week will announce a faster wind-down of asset purchases.

The Dow Jones fell 0.3% while the Nasdaq plunged 1.1%.

Back home, Indian share markets opened on a flat note, following the trend on SGX Nifty.

However, benchmark indices eked out gains and fell half a percent as IT and realty stocks came under pressure.

Paytm shares tumbled over 11% as the anchor lock-in period ended today.

The BSE Sensex is trading down by 315 points. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading lower by 87 points.

NTPC and Kotak Bank are among the top gainers today. Bajaj Finance, on the other hand, is among the top losers today.

The BSE Mid Cap index and the BSE Small Cap index are trading higher by 0.1% and 0.2%, respectively.

Sectoral indices are trading mixed with stocks in the power sector and metal sector witnessing buying interest.

Realty stocks and IT stocks, on the other hand, are trading in red.

Shares of Tanla Platforms and KPR Mill hit their 52-week highs today.

The rupee is trading at 76.05 against the US$.

Gold prices are trading down by 0.2% at Rs 47,994 per 10 grams.

Meanwhile, silver prices are trading down by 0.1% at Rs 60,733 per kg.

Crude oil prices edged higher but gains were capped due to investor worries about oil demand after renewed restrictions were imposed in Europe and Asia amid a rise in coronavirus cases.

Speaking of stock markets, Brijesh Bhatia talks about why he is bullish on PSU banks, in his latest video for Fast Profits Daily.

PSU banking stocks have been underperformers in this bull market. In fact, compared to private banks, their performance looks really bad.

But as per Brijesh, things are about to change. Tune in to the video below to know why.

In news from the FMCG sector, ITC is among the top buzzing stocks today.

ITC chairman Sanjiv Puri said the company is open to the idea of demerger of the non-cigarette fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) business and listing of the information technology (IT) businesses if it creates sustained value for shareholders and depending on business maturity.

He added that ITC has not shelved the demerger plans for the hotel business, which will be done as soon as the industry recovers.

The company is also actively pursuing acquisitions opportunities in FMCG and IT business, while it has lined up investments of Rs 100 bn over the next three years.

Of the Rs 100 bn, 35-40% will be spent on the FMCG business, including cigarettes, to create new lines as sales and demand grows; 25-30% on the paperboard business since the nature of the business is capacity led growth, 10% on the hotel business to complete existing projects and balance on the agri-business to drive its digital growth and sustainability.

During its first ever analyst meet, Puri said ITC is going to shrink its mass market soap and shampoo brand Superia since it has not been able to meet expected performance.

The company is setting up sleep boutiques as part of its hotel business to sell products associated with sleep such as beds, fragrances and pillows which will be further expanded and sold online.

The chairman went on to add that ITC is actively exploring opportunities for acquisition in the FMCG and IT business. These will be an integral part of the growth strategy of the company which till now was largely through the organic route.

Speaking on the cigarette business, Puri said the recovery has been robust in the first half of the fiscal, there is a premiumisation of portfolio backed by innovation and better last mile execution of the assortment.

Note that shares of ITC have been in focus ever since it announced plans to hold the investor meet.

Shares of ITC are currently trading down by 0.2%.

Speaking of the FMCG sector, have a look at the chart below which shows the performance of BSE Sensex and BSE FMCG index since 2009:

While the Sensex has offered 393% returns since 2009, the BSE FMCG index has gone up a staggering 532% returns over the same period.

Richa Agarwal, Senior Research Analyst at Equitymaster, and Editor of the smallcap service, Hidden Treasure, believes this outperformance could continue for many years.

As per Richa, with a rising population and standards of living, Indian's consumption demand for FMCG products will skyrocket over the coming years.

Moving on to news from the energy sector, GAIL India is planning to import India's first and the largest to date electrolyser for producing green hydrogen within a year and may look to hire another ship to ferry LNG from the US.

The state-owned company's chairman and managing director Manoj Jain said they have launched a global tender to procure a 10-megawatt electrolyser capable of producing 4.5 tonnes per day of hydrogen.

The company will install the electrolyser at one of its gas processing plants in the country. While the firm was initially looking at using natural gas as feedstock for producing what is known as blue hydrogen, reports suggest it may look at using renewable energy to split water to produce oxygen and green hydrogen.

Jain said the hydrogen so produced can be sold to users such as fertiliser plants or mixed in CNG for sale to automobiles, helping cut emissions.

At present, the largest electrolyser announced in India is a 5-MW unit being installed by India's largest power utility NTPC at Vindhyachal in Uttar Pradesh.

NTPC intends to power the electrolyser using a coal-fired super-thermal power station, in concert with carbon capture. Renewable electricity may potentially be used in the future, which would make it emissions-free, but no date has been set for when that could occur.

Note that India is putting increased focus on hydrogen as an alternative fuel source to lower its carbon emissions. Big corporates Reliance as well as Adani have announced ambitious green hydrogen plans.

How the green revolution in India pans out remains to be seen.

GAIL share price is currently trading down by 0.3%.

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

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