A sharp downtick in auto, pharma, metal, and PSU bank stocks dragged domestic indices from their record peaks to end marginally lower on Tuesday. Market breadth favoured bears today as 1,658 stocks declined on the BSE as against 1,303 stocks that rose. Around 193 remained unchanged at close. The indices snapped a six-day winning streak with the S&P BSE Sensex closing at 51,329 levels, down 20 points or 0.04 per cent. Asian Paints, ONGC, Titan, L&T, UltraTech Cement, and Nestle India, up in the range of 1 per cent to 4 per cent, were the top gainers today while M&M, Sun Pharma, Bajaj Auto, and ITC, down up to 3 per cent, ended as top laggards. The index edged closer to the 52,000-mark today and hit a new peak of 51,836 on the BSE in the intra-day trade. The broader Nifty50, on the other hand, managed to close above the 15,100-mark, at 15,109 levels, down 6.5 points or 0.04 per cent. The index hit an all-time-high of 15,257 during the day. Broader markets too ended in the red with the S&P BSE MidCap index down 0.18 per cent at close while the S&P BSE SmallCap index slipped 0.26 per cent. On the sectoral front, most of the indices were gripped in profit booking. The Nifty Auto, Metal, and Pharma indices settled over 1 per cent lower each, followed by losses in the Nifty Realty Index (down 0.7 per cent) and the Nifty FMCG index (down 0.6 per cent). Among individual stocks, shares of Balaji Amines zoomed 20 per cent to hit a new high of Rs 1,514 on the BSE in today’s intra-day trade after its profit more-than-doubled to Rs 70.16 crore in the October-December quarter on the back of healthy revenue. The stock eventually closed 14% higher at 1,443 apiece. On the downside, shares of Balkrishna Industries slipped 11 per cent to Rs 1,640 on the BSE in Tuesday’s intra-day trade as investors booked profit after the company announced a capex plan of up to Rs 1,900 crore, which will be funded by internal accruals and debt, if required. The stock ended 10% lower at Rs 1,654 per share. On the earnings front, shares of Berger Paints ended 2 per cent higher after its Q3 profit jumped nearly 51% on a yearly basis to Rs 274.8 crore, compared with profit of Rs 255 crore in the year-ago period. It’s revenue increased 8.5 per cent YoY to Rs 2,118 crore. Those of Adani Ports, meanwhile, settled flat as its net profit stood at Rs 1,561.5 crore for Q3FY21, up 15.5% YoY. It’s revenue came in at Rs 3,746 crore, up 12% YoY. Global markets Global stocks rose for the seventh straight day to reach a record high on Tuesday, while bitcoin also reached a peak after an endorsement from Tesla in the prior session had sent the cryptocurrency up 20 per cent. It climbed to a new peak of $48,216 late in the Asian afternoon on Tuesday. Rival cryptocurrency ethereum had struck a record high of $1,784.85 in the early morning. In the equities’ market, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan were up 0.3 per cent, led by Chinese blue chips, up 2.2 per cent. Meanwhile, the MSCI All-Country World Index edged up 0.1 per cent to its own record high. In Europe, the STOXX 600 index fell 0.1 per cent while Germany’s DAX index was down 0.2 per cent. Dow Jones Futures were last down over 100 points indicating a weak start on Wall Street later today.
