Sensex, Nifty Edge Lower; Hariom Pipe Makes Stellar Market Debut

The Indian equity benchmarks turned flat in late morning deals on Wednesday ahead of weekly expiry of index futures and option contracts. Gains in Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel NTPC and Bajaj Finance were offset with losses in HDFC twins, Asian Paints, Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys. The Sensex declined as much as 489 points from the day’s highest level and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday low of 17,523 after hitting high of 17,663. Meanwhile, most of the Asian markets were trading higher as US inflation data which came overnight was as bad as expected.

As of 11:04 am, the Sensex was down 15 points at 58,561 and Nifty 50 index advanced 13 points to 17,543.

Japan's Nikkei rose 1.71 per cent, Taiwan Weighted gained 1.8 per cent and South Korea's KOSPI added 1.4 per cent.

Inflation soared over the past year at its fastest pace in more than 40 years, with costs for food, gasoline, housing and other necessities squeezing American consumers and wiping out the pay raises that many people have received.

The Labour Department said Tuesday that its consumer price index jumped 8.5 per cent in March from 12 months earlier, the sharpest year-over-year increase since 1981. Prices have been driven up by bottlenecked supply chains, robust consumer demand and disruptions to global food and energy markets worsened by Russia’s war against Ukraine. From February to March, inflation rose 1.2 per cent, the biggest month-to-month jump since 2005. Gasoline prices drove more than half that increase, news agency AP reported.

Back home, eight of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty Metal index’s 0.8 per cent gain. Nifty PSU Bank, Realty and FMCG indices also rose in range of 0.3-0.5 per cent.

On the other hand, select auto, financial services, IT, pharma and consumer durable shares were facing selling pressure.

Broader markets also gave up intraday gains but were outperforming their larger peers as Nifty Midcap 100 index gained 0.3 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index rose 0.64 per cent.

Among the individual shares, Anand Rathi Wealth rose as much as 16.4 per cent to hit record high of Rs 711.95 on the BSE a day after it reported its March quarter earnings. The company's net profit jumped more than three times to Rs 346 crore in March quarter compared with Rs 102 crore during the same period last year.
Shares of Hariom Pipe Industries made a stellar stock market debut on Wednesday. Hariom Pipe Industries shares opened for trading at Rs 214 on the BSE compared to its IPO price of Rs 153 per share. The stock rose as much as 47 per cent or Rs 71.70 from the IPO price to hit an intraday high of Rs 224.70. On the National Stock Exchange, Hariom Pipe Industries opened at Rs 220 and hit an intraday high of Rs 231 per share.

Hariom Pipe Industries sold shares in the price band of Rs 144-153 per share via initial public offering between March 30-April 5 and the issue was subscribed 3.57 times, data from the National Stock Exchange showed.

ONGC was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 3.2 per cent to Rs 174. Coal India, UPL, Apollo Hospitals, NTPC, JSW Steel, Bharti Airtel, Mahindra & Mahindra and State Bank of India also rose between 0.9-2.2 per cent.

On the flipside, Asian Paints, Dr Reddy's Labs, Titan, Power Grid, HDFC, Maruti Suzuki, HDFC Bank, Cipla, UltraTech Cement, Divi's Labs, TCS and Tata Motors were among the losers.

The overall market breadth was positive as 2,056 shares were advancing while 1,122 were declining on the BSE.