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Stock market closes in a mix; PFC, REC, IREDA suffer loss

At the close, Sensex was 17 points, or 0.02 per cent, higher at 73,895.54, while the Nifty 50 closed 33 points, 0.15 per cent , lower at 22,442.70.

Stock market closes in a mix; PFC, REC, IREDA suffer loss

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Stock market on Monday closed in a mix with shares of select heavyweights being the top drags on the key indices.

At the close, Sensex was 17 points, or 0.02 per cent, higher at 73,895.54, while the Nifty 50 closed 33 points, 0.15 per cent , lower at 22,442.70.

Amid the positive global cues, the market benchmarks ended on a lacklustre note with ongoing concerns about overvaluation in the absence of new positive catalysts and amidst mixed Q4 earnings reports.

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Among Sectors, PSU Bank index lost the most, shed 3.7 per cent whereas Reality index outperformed gained over 2.5 per cent. Technically, after a gap up opening the benchmark indices witnessed profit booking at higher levels.

Among PSU financials, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, Bank of India, State Bank of India, Union Bank of India, and UCO Bank dropped between 2 per cent and 5 per cent .

On the Nifty 50 index, Titan, SBI, and Reliance Industries ended as the top drags. Select banking and IT heavyweights such as Kotak Mahindra Bank, TCS, ICICI Bank, and Infosys supported the index the most.

Titan share price fell over 7 per cent after it reported weaker-than-expected Q4 numbers. On the other hand, shares of Kotak Mahindra Bank jumped 5 per cent , buoyed by its March quarter results.

Paytm shares fell over 4.5 per cent after the digital payments and financial services firm announced the resignation of its COO and president, Bhavesh Gupta, via a regulatory filing over the weekend.

Bhavesh Gupta’s resignation comes just ahead of Paytm’s scheduled announcement of the March quarter results for fiscal year 2024.

After the RBI ‘s draft guidelines on project financing, shares of REC Ltd, Power Finance Corporation Ltd. (PFC) and Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) plunged as much as 11 per cent .

The RBI guidelines mentioned that 5 per cent general provision should be made on all existing and fresh project loans, which are in the construction phase.

Analysts at JM Financial Institutional Securities believe that this will lead to a significant increase in provisioning requirement and will result in lower returns for lenders in project finance and reduce incremental appetite for such exposures, if implemented in current form.

However, the analysts at CLSA ( capital markets and investment group) believe that there will be no impact on PFC’s and Rural Electrification Corporation Limited’s (REC’s) profit & loss (P&L) though the proposed norms will be a drag on their capital adequacy.

Mid and smallcap segments suffered deeper losses as the BSE Midcap index fell 0.95%, while the BSE Smallcap index suffered a loss of 1.06 per cent .

The overall market capitalisation of the firms listed on the BSE dropped to nearly Rs 403.4 lakh crore from Rs 406.2 lakh crore in the previous session.

The global stocks ticked higher on renewed bets that the Federal Reserve would likely ease interest rates this year.

Yen weakened after a strong surge last week from Tokyo’s suspected currency intervention.

Europe’s broadest stock index rose 0.4 per cent while S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures added 0.2 per cent each in a positive sign for the Wall Street open later on.

Oil prices were also in focus on the prospects of Saudi Arabian price hikes and rising tensions in the Middle East.

Data on Monday also showed that China’s services activity expansion slowed a touch amid rising costs, but growth in new orders accelerated and business sentiment rose.

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