On Monday, Indian equity benchmarks fell for the third day in a row, weighed down by selling in Finance, Capital Goods, Banking, and FMCG shares. Key gauges started weakly, and selling was accentuated throughout the session, as traders remained cautious with a private report that the Reserve Bank is likely to maintain the status quo on key policy rates in its next bi-monthly economic policy, which will be the first after the presentation of the Union Budget for 2022-23, due to inflationary concerns.

The Nifty50 has formed a long bear candle on the daily chart with a minor lower shadow, according to Nagaraj Shetti, Technical Research Analyst at HDFC Securities.

Monday’s steep fall is yet another instance of market action seen in the past few months wherein sharp weakness occurs at higher or lower tops, he said.

Indian Indices

Sensex fell 1023.63 points or 1.75% to 57,621.19 and Nifty was down by 302.70 points or 1.73% to 17,213.60 in the previous session. Sensex touched high and low of 58,707.76 and 57,299.05, respectively. There were 5 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index while Nifty traded in a range of 17,536.75 and 17,119.40 and there were 8 stocks advancing against 42 stocks declining on the index.  

Broader Indices

The broader indices ended in red with the BSE Midcap index falling 1.25%, while the Small cap index was down by 0.75%. The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 0.97%, Power up by 0.69% and Metal up by 0.11%, while Finance down by 2.30%, Capital Goods down by 2.13%, Bankex down by 1.87%, FMCG down by 1.70% and Telecom down by 1.69% were the losing indices on BSE.

Support and Resistance levels

Key support levels for the Nifty are placed at 17,043.07, followed by 16,872.54. If the index moves up, the key resistance levels to watch out for are 17,460.47 and 17,707.34, according to pivot charts.

SGX Nifty

The trends on SGX Nifty indicate a negative opening for the index in India with a 41-points loss. The Nifty futures were trading at 17,238.80 on the Singaporean Exchange around 07:30 hours IST.

Asian Markets

Asian markets finished mixed. The Shanghai Composite gained 2.03% and the Hang Seng rose 0.03%. The Nikkei 225 lost 0.70%.

US Markets

The S&P 500 fell 16.66 points, or 0.4%, to 4,483.87.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.39 points, or less than 0.1%, to 35,091.13.

The Nasdaq fell 82.34 points, or 0.6%, to 14,015.67.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 10.24 points, or 0.5%, to 2,012.60.

European Markets

European markets finished higher today. The CAC 40 is up 0.91% while London’s FTSE 100 is up 0.89% and Germany’s DAX is up 0.85%.

Food Processing Ministry has approved 83 proposals for incentives under the PLI scheme

The Food Processing Ministry has given its nod to an additional 83 proposals to avail incentives under the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme, which has been rolled out with an outlay of ₹10,900 crores. These companies have been selected to avail benefits for manufacturing innovative and organic products as well as to enable Indian brands to gain global visibility in international markets.

JK Tyres intends to decrease debt by 45% by FY25 

JK Tyres and Industries, one of India’s largest tyre manufacturers, plans to bring down debt by around 45% in the next three years as part of its deleveraging plan involving maintaining a tight leash on costs and spending. The company has net debt of ₹4,800 crores as of December 31, 2021. The large debt overhang has restricted JK Tyres from arranging large capital expenditures (CAPEX) for setting up new tyre factories.

RBL Bank collaborates with Creditas Solutions to automate the collection

RBL Bank has partnered with Creditas Solutions for its ‘Neo Collections’ platform. The private sector lender will utilise the SaaS-based platform to accelerate efficiency in collections across the loan cycle, said a statement on Monday. “Powered by AI and ML technology, the platform is built to automate strategies for reaching out to customers individually in an empathetic manner and motivate them to repay loans,” it further said. The platform can also determine the best course of action for every customer by offering customised payment plans to service debt, schedule an EMI plan or opt for payment resolution options.

L&T and Microsoft have agreed to collaborate on the development of a regulated sector-focused cloud offering

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and Microsoft India on Monday announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop a cloud offering focused on the regulated sector. “L&T and Microsoft will co-engage with a defined set of large customers in regulated sectors to develop architectures and roadmaps to modernise their traditional data centres to potentially hybrid models and advance their digital transformation goals,” the companies said in an official release. Under the MoU, the companies will set up a joint governance group to define future platform designs, investments, and commercial/business models to help fulfil the emerging technology requirements of the regulated sector. Senior leadership teams of both organisations will be engaged collectively on this as the association evolves.

ICICI Lombard offers cyber insurance to Airtel Payments Bank customers

ICICI Lombard General Insurance on Monday said it is offering cyber insurance to customers of Airtel Payments Bank as rising digital payments and transactions pose a threat of cyber fraud. ICICI Lombard’s cyber insurance solution provides financial protection to customers against potential financial fraud relating to banking, credit or debit card; identity theft; phishing or email spoofing and more. Airtel Payments Bank customers can purchase this cyber insurance policy within minutes using the Airtel Thanks app. The insurance comes with zero waiting period and allows users to make multiple claims multiple times during the policy tenure, within the limits of the insured amount opted for, ICICI said in a release. The policy will provide a 90-day discovery period followed by a seven-day reporting period. 

Bulk Deal data

BHATIA KARISHMA DILIP bought 1,93,226 shares of Archies Limited at Rs 23.75 per share on NSE.

RAMLAL KANWARLAL JAIN sold 3,52,774 shares in Compuage Infocom Ltd at Rs 41.19 per share on the NSE.

QUANT CAPITAL HOLDINGS PVT LTD bought 10,58,045 equity shares in Eros Intl Media Ltd at Rs 25.15 per share on the NSE, the bulk deals data showed.

MITTAL RONAK picked up 68,496 equity shares in Jet Freight Logistics Ltd at Rs 72.90 per share respectively on the NSE.

KULDEEP DADUBHA GADHVI sold 2,15,000 shares in Shree Ram Proteins Ltd. at Rs 64.60 per share on the NSE.

DII and FII data

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 1157.23 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) offloaded shares worth a net Rs 1376.49 crore in the Indian equity market on February 7, as per provisional data available on the NSE.

NSE F&O Ban

No security/stock has been put under the F&O ban for February 8. Securities in the ban period under the F&O segment include companies in which the security has crossed 95% of the market-wide position limit.