MARKET CAME TO AN HALT DRAGGED BY SELL-OFF IN INDEX HEAVYWEIGHTS

Domestic Equities witnessed a volatility session and showed a negative sign dragged by sell-off in index heavyweights such as Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), Infosys and ITC. Weak global cues has also heavily weighed on the investor sentiment. Nifty Midcap outperformed the benchmarks ending over 0.5 percent higher. Net Buying of FII/FPI was at Rs483.64 crore while Net Buying of DII was at Rs.380.41 crore. The Sensex ended 263.72 points or 0.54 percent lower at 48,174.06 levels with shares of Powergrid, Bharti Airtel, ONGC, Ultratech Cement, ICICI Bank¸SBI, L & T were the gainers with having gains of 4.34%, 2.28%,2.11%, 1.95%,1.80%, 1.12%, 0.59% respectively while shares of ITC, Reliance, Bajaj Finance, Axis Bank, HCL Tech, HUL, TCS were the losers with a loss of 2.86%,2.64%, 1.82%, 1.48%, 1.36%, 1.34% respectively. The NSE Nifty declined 53.25 points or 0.38 percent to close at 14,146.25 levels with Indexes like Metal, Realty, Media, Bank Indexes were having gains of 1.29%, 0.71%, 0.25%, 0.24% respectively while IT, FMCG, Auto ,Pharma Indexes were having loss of 1.36%, 1.13%, 0.39%, 0.37% respectively.

TOP STOCKS IN NEWSCAST:

Powergrid surged over 4% as the company announced that the ministry of Power has appointed Dilip Nigam, Scientist 'G', Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India as Part Time Govt. Nominee Director on the Board of POWERGRID with immediate effect.

ONGC gained over 2% as Brent crude prices climbed to their highest since February 2020.

State Bank of India(SBI) jumped over 1% as the bank is introducing Positive Pay System (PPS) w.e.f. 01/01/2021 to ensure added security where the cheque issuer now needs to provide details such as account number, cheque number, cheque amount, cheque date payee name with respect to the cheque payments.

ITC Plunged nearly 3% after the government prepared a bill to raise the age for allowing sale of cigarettes and tobacco products to 21 years from the current 18 years.