Top headlines
•Benchmark indices change course to end in red; Sensex drops 196 points
•Go Fashion makes stellar stock market debut, lists at 91% premium
•Star Health IPO receives lukewarm response; subscribed around 11% on Day 1
•RBI likely to raise rates and tighten monetary policy, says Goldman Sachs
•Crypto Bill to be introduced in Parliament after Cabinet's approval
Market bulls failed to keep the indices afloat on the bourses on Tuesday after a statement by Moderna chief on vaccines' likely ineffectiveness jolted investor confidence.
Although health authorities have said it will take several weeks to fully gauge how Omicron's more than 30 mutations will affect its response to existing vaccines, Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel told the Financial Times that he expected vaccines to be less effective against the new coronavirus strain.
Reacting to the development, shares in Asia-Pacific fell during Tuesday's trade. South Korea's Kospi fell 2.4 per cent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng and Japan's Nikkei slipped 1.9 per cent and 1.6 per cent, respectively.
In Europe, the pan-European Stoxx 600 index was down 1.6 per cent by mid-morning. Dow Jones futures were also down by over 500 points, indicating a weak start for Wall Street.
Against this backdrop, the Sensex gyrated 1,683 points intra-day and ended 196 points down at 57,065. The NSE Nifty50 also slipped below the 17,000 mark to end at 16,983, down 71 points. Earlier in the day, the 50-pack index hit a low of 16,931.
With today's decline, the benchmark indices took their total decline in November to 4 per cent, their biggest monthly loss since March 2020. This correction was triggered by a cocktail of FII selling, high crude oil prices, fears of a possible change in the interest-rate scenario, and the new heavily mutated Covid-19 variant Omicron.
Among individual stocks, 17 of the 30 Sensex constituents and 28 of the 50 Nifty constituents ended the day in the red. Tata Steel, Kotak Bank, Bajaj Auto, M&M, Bharti Airtel, and RIL were the biggest losers.
The biggest gainers were PowerGrid, Shree Cement, Bajaj Finserv, Titan, and Tata Consumer Products, all of which rose by up to 3 per cent.
The broader markets, however, witnessed decent buying, tilting the overall market breadth in the favour of buyers. The BSE MidCap index added 0.3 per cent and the BSE SmallCap index gained 1.45 per cent.
A look at some of the other important developments of the day:
•Shares of Go Fashion (India) made a stellar market debut today, with the stock getting listed at Rs 1,316 on the BSE. This was a 91-per-cent premium to its issue price of Rs 690. The shares, however, witnessed mild profit booking and ended at Rs 1,253 apiece.
•The initial public offering of Ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed Star Health and Allied Insurance has been subscribed 11 per cent so far on Day 1. The retail portion has been subscribed 63 per cent.
•Indian online retailer Snapdeal, which is backed by SoftBank Group and Alibaba Group Holding, is planning to file preliminary documents for a $250-million IPO in the next few weeks. According to a Bloomberg report, the e-commerce company aims to go public in early 2022, and plans to raise at least $200 million at a valuation of $1.5 billion.
•The Reserve Bank of India could start tightening its monetary policy from the next financial year as consumer prices are rising, according to Goldman Sachs Group. The Group expects the central bank to hike rates by 75 basis points in 2022.
•Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has clarified in the Rajya Sabha that the government is not considering a ban on cryptocurrency advertisements and that the crypto Bill will be introduced in Parliament after it receives the Union Cabinet's approval.
