BSE stocks such as Axis Bank, Equitas Small Finance Bank and General Insurance Corporation of India are among 81 stocks that touched their respective one-year high levels on Wednesday, defying weakness in the domestic benchmarks.
Indian equity benchmarks plunged sharply in afternoon deals as state-owned banks, technology, metal and energy stocks dragged.
On BSE, 81 stocks hit their 52-week high-level today, while 22 recorded their one-year lows. The overall market breadth stood weak as 1,189 shares were seen advancing while 2,107 were declining.
Reliance Industries, Infosys, HDFC twins (HDFC and HDFC Bank), ITC, L&T, SBI, IndusInd Bank, TCS, ICICI Bank and Tata Steel pulled the BSE index lower today.
On NSE, Yes Bank, Suzlon, Vodafone Idea, IRFC, PNB, Bank of Maharashtra, South Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Tata Steel and RCF were among the active stocks in terms of volume.
In terms of value, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, Infosys, RCF, Tata Steel and HDFC Life were most active.
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All the 15 Nifty sub-indices plunged in afternoon deals. Nifty PSU Bank, Nifty Metal and Nifty IT were the worst-performing sub-indices today, falling 2.24 per cent, 2 per cent and 1.25 per cent, each.
Investors fret over the rising Covid-19 cases in China and the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate hiking path. Indian equities dropped due to caution ahead of the minutes, Neeraj Dewan, Director at Quantum Securities, told news agency Reuters.
Analysts said the uncertainty over demand recovery in China due to the surge in Covid cases has forced metal companies to offer retailers discounts, diluting the effect of higher prices.
The minutes of the Fed’s December meeting are due later today. The central bank raised rates by 50 basis points (bps) last month after four straight 75-bps hikes and signalled rates could stay higher for longer. Wall Street fell overnight.
Further, foreign institutional investors sold Rs 628.07 crore worth of equities on a net basis on Tuesday, while domestic investors bought about Rs 350.57 crore worth of shares, as per provisional NSE data.
In contrast, Asian markets were mostly seen trading on a higher note today.
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