Sensex falls 222 points; Nifty below 15,100

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Indian benchmark indices opened with weakness tracking cues from its Asian peers. Sensex was down 222 points or 0.43% at 51,101, and the Nifty was down 64 points or 0.43% at 15,054.

Only 5 out of 30 stocks were trading in the green on the Sensex. HUL, Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, L&T gained 0.5-1.5% in opening trades. Powergrid, ICICI Bank, NTPC, ONGC & Bajaj Auto were top losers on the Sensex.

On the sectoral front, all major indices like Nifty Bank, Nifty Auto, Nifty Metal, were trading with losses of over a per cent. Nifty PSU Banks which gained almost 12% in the last two trading sessions was trading with gains of 0.5% & Nifty FMCG was up 0.33% in opening trades.

Stocks in focus Ambuja Cements reported 23.64% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 732 crore on 5.55% rise in net sales to Rs 7350 crore in Q4 December 2020 over Q4 December 2019.

The board of directors of ACC has approved the renewal of the existing Master Supply Agreement (MSA) with Ambuja Cements (ACL) for a period of 3 years w.e.f. May 02, 2021, on the same terms of the existing MSA Agreement.

DLF said its material subsidiary DLF Cyber City Developers (DCCDL) has completed the acquisition of this 51.8% stake at a consideration of Rs 779.40 crore and consequently, Fairleaf has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of DCCDL with effect from 18th February 2021.

NMDC informed that after obtaining the Lease extension of Donimalai Iron Ore Mine (ML-2396) for 20 years w.e.f. 3 November 2018 from Govt. of Karnataka (GoK) and completing the associated statutory requirements, the said Donimalai Iron Ore Mine was restarted on 18 February 2021 forenoon.

IDFC FIRST Bank said its board approved raising of funds for an amount aggregating up to Rs 3,000 crore, in one or more tranches, on such terms and conditions as it may deem fit, by way of issuance of securities, through one or more permissible mode(s), including but not limited to a Private Placement, Qualified Institutions Placement, Follow-on Public Offering or a combination thereof.

NLC India informed that 17,000 units of Commercial Paper of a face value of Rs. 5 lakh each, aggregating to Rs 850 crore have been issued and allotted on 18 February 2021.

Telcos: Bharti Airtel added 40.51 lakh new customers in December 2020, while Reliance Jio added 4.79 lakh, new customers, according to data released by Trai. Vodafone Idea lost over 56.90 lakh mobile customers.

Global markets Overseas, Asian stocks are trading lower on Friday following overnight declines for the major indexes on Wall Street.

Japan’s core consumer prices declined 0.6% in January as compared with a year earlier, according to data released Friday by the country’s Statistics Bureau.

U.S. stocks slid on Thursday as investors were discouraged by worse-than-expected jobless claims reading as well as a weak forecast from Walmart.

Meanwhile, the latest jobless claims number signalled a setback in the labour market recovery. First-time filings for unemployment insurance totalled 861,000 last week, the highest level in a month, the Labor Department reported Thursday.