The key domestic indices traded with limited cuts in the afternoon trade as weak earnings and foreign fund outflows continued to hit investors' sentiment. The Nifty traded below the 22,900 level.
Barring IT index, while all the sectoral indices on the NSE were traded in red with consumer durables, media, and PSU Bank shares witnessing the sharpest declines.
At 13:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, slipped 95.99 points or 0.13% to 75,909.01. The Nifty 50 index declined 67.35 points or 0.29% to 22,892.55.
The broader market underperformed the frontline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index declined 1.09% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index dropped 2.32%.
The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 795 shares rose and 3,086 shares fell. A total of 117 shares were unchanged.
Gainers & Losers:
Tech Mahindra (up 1.22%), Wipro (up 1%), Apollo Hospitals Enterprise (up 0.90%), NTPC (up 0.68%), and HDFC Bank (up 0.52%) were the major Nifty gainers.
Bharat Electronics (down 2.28%), Trent (down 2.83%), Mahindra and Mahindra (down 1.91%), Indusind Bank (down 1.64%), and Tata Motors (down 1.85%) were the major Nifty losers.
Stocks in Spotlight:
ABB India shed 0.88%. The company’s net profit increased 56% to Rs 528.41 crore in Q4 CY24, compared to Rs 338.68 crore in the same period last year. Revenue from operations jumped 22% to Rs 3,364.93 crore in the fourth quarter of the calendar year 2024 as against Rs 2,757.49 crore in the year-ago quarter.
Meanwhile, the company declared a final dividend of Rs 33.50 per share. The record date has been set for 3 May 2025. This is in addition to the Rs 10.66 interim dividend per equity share declared in Q2 CY2024.
Power Grid Corporation of India fell 0.36%. The company has announced that it has been declared the successful bidder under tariff-based competitive bidding for two projects to establish an inter-state transmission system on a build, own, operate, and transfer (BOOT) basis.
Patel Engineering (PEL) tumbled 3.57%. The company said that its joint venture has been declared the lowest bidder (L-1) for a Rs 1,090.45 crore project awarded by the Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporation, Pune.
GMR Airports Infrastructure fell 1.82%. The company reported a 11.4% year on year (YoY) increase in passenger traffic across all GMR airports, reaching over 10.6 million passengers in January 2025.
SBI Cards and Payment Services rose 0.11%. The company said that its board has appointed Salila Pande as the managing director (MD) & CEO with effect from 1 April 2025.
Meanwhile, SBI Cards has declared an interim dividend of Rs 2.50 per share for the financial year 2024-25. The record date for dividend eligibility is 25 February 2025, and payments will be processed by 18 March 2025.
Global Markets:
European markets advanced on Tuesday as traders kept an eye on geopolitical tensions in the region. Geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and Europe are likely to remain in focus for European markets this week as U.S. officials prepare for talks with Russia to end the war in Ukraine, with officials in Kyiv and Europe being left out of the discussions.
European leaders held an emergency summit in Paris on Monday to discuss how to respond to the apparent decision to sideline Europe, and while they agreed on increasing defense spending, there was no alignment over whether to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine after any peace deal.
Asian stocks traded mixed as investors assessed Chinese President Xi’s comments in a meeting with top executives.
“The RBA has started on a policy easing cycle that was well-telegraphed and anticipated by the market as the initial market reaction was relatively contained,” he wrote in a Tuesday note. The Australian dollar had weakened marginally by 0.02% to 0.6354 against the dollar.
Optimism around China surged on Monday (Feb 17) after President Xi Jinping met with business leaders, including Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, fueling expectations that Beijing's years-long crackdown on the private sector may be coming to an end. Additionally, DeepSeek’s breakthrough in artificial intelligence has sparked a rally of over US$1 trillion in Chinese stocks.
Meanwhile, US markets remained closed on Monday, February 17, 2025, for Presidents' Day, honoring the birth anniversary of George Washington.
Investor focus remains on President Donald Trump’s plans for additional trade tariffs, as well as the trajectory of interest rates following last week’s stubborn inflation data.