India’s stock markets opened in negative territory on Tuesday, 13 March 2018, with Sensex tumbling 100 points and Nifty tripping below 10,400-mark after yesterday’s relief rally which steered a 611-point surge in Sensex. The decline in the domestic equities was led by the slump in the shares of Tata group cash cow and the heavyweight firm among the Sensex components Tata Consultancy Services. Shares of India’s largest IT company TCS fell by more than 5% in the morning deals after the holding company Tata Sons sold about 1.5% stake or 2.83 crore shares of TCS in a block deal. In a series of macro data reported yesterday, the Industrial production grew at a high rate of 7.5% in January 2018 as against 3.5% in the same period a year earlier while the retail inflation fell to a 4-month low of 4.44% in February.
Shares of Tata Consultancy Services tanked 5.9% to a day’s low of Rs 2,872 on NSE while the stock plunged as much as 5.21% to a day’s low of Rs 2892.6 on BSE. A humongous trading volume was observed in the shares of TCS, as at 9:20 am, more than 3.28 crore shares of TCS exchanged hands on both NSE and BSE with about 3.16 crore on NSE alone. Shares of Wipro, Airtel, L&T, Sun Pharma, ITC, IndusInd Bank emerged as the top gainers among the Sensex constituents rising up to 3%.
Shares of the Hyderabad-based state-run Andhra Bank recovered most of its losses after the bank on Monday said that it had classified Sterling group companies as non-performing in March 2015 and reported the matter to the RBI, and subsequently, a case has also been lodged with the CBI. Further, Andhra Bank said that its exposure to Sterling Group companies is Rs 1,146.92 crore which is Rs 578.57 core (fund based) and Rs 568.35 crore (non-fund based) as on date. The stock of Andhra Bank surged 10.32% to Rs 39.55 on BSE today.
The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped on Monday as the U.S. tariffs signed into law last week by President Donald Trump weighed on industrials, though gains in tech stocks boosted the Nasdaq, Reuters said in a report. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 157.13 points, or 0.62 percent, to 25,178.61, the S&P 500 lost 3.55 points, or 0.13 percent, to 2,783.02 and the Nasdaq Composite added 27.52 points, or 0.36 percent, to 7,588.33.
