Sensex falls over 150 pts; Nifty above 15.8K; FMCG gains

RIL, HDFC top drags

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PNB Housing Finance trades lower

PNB Housing Finance was down 1.77% to ₹725.00 apiece at 10:59 am. National Housing Bank (NHB) has imposed a penalty of ₹80,000 on PNB Housing Finance for not complying with loan disbursement norms in 2015. However, the company has asked the regulator to reconsider the penalty.

Rupee opens on flat note, rises 5 paise to 73.26 against US dollar in early trade

The Indian rupee opened on a flat note and inched higher by 5 paise to 73.26 against the US dollar in early trade on Wednesday ahead of the US Federal Reserve meeting outcome.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the domestic unit opened at 73.29 against the dollar, then inched higher to quote 73.26, a rise of 5 paise over its previous close of 73.31 on Tuesday.

The Indian Rupee started on a flat note this Wednesday against the greenback as investors await the important Fed meeting outcome for further cues, Reliance Securities said in a research note.

India’s fuel sales recover from June lows, still lower than last year

Domestic fuel sales by Indian state refiners recovered in the first half of June due to the easing of coronavirus lockdowns across the country but was still lower compared with last year, preliminary data showed on Wednesday.

Petrol sales was 13% higher and diesel sales rose 12% over 1-15 June, compared with the same period last month, data compiled by the state refiners showed.

FMCG in green

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Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg drops off top CEO list, Glassdoor says

Mark Zuckerberg’s approval among some Facebook Inc. employees has slipped, dislodging him from Glassdoor’s ranking of the Top 100 CEOs, a list he’s been on annually since 2013.

Worker sentiment on Zuckerberg, as measured by Glassdoor surveys taken by more than 700 Facebook employees between May 2020 and May 2021, declined particularly in the last months of 2020 and early this year, when Facebook was managing the aftermath of the U.S. presidential election and misinformation around the Covid-19 pandemic. While Zuckerberg still managed a rating of 88%, higher than the average 73% approval rating for CEOs generally, that wasn’t enough for the top 100 list, where Microsoft Corp.’s Satya Nadella scores a 97% and Apple Inc.’s Tim Cook scores 95%. (Read here)

Commodities pip Bitcoins to become the most crowded trade: Bofa survey

Commodities overtake Bitcoins to become the most crowded trade, say 26% of the respondents of the latest global fund manager survey by Bofa Securities. The second spot is shared by Bitcoins and technology stocks with equal number of votes. They are followed by long ESG, short US Treasuries and long euro.

The survey report points out that prior “peaks” in crowded trades such as for technology stocks in September 2020 & September 2018, US Treasuries in March 2020 and US dollar in January 2017 and February 2015, were associated with relative tops.

Power Finance Corporation gains nearly 4%

Power Finance Corporation was trading at ₹132.35 apiece, up 3.56% at 10:12 am. The company reported Q4FY21 consolidated net profit of ₹3,906 crore, compared to ₹694 crore a year ago. The company’s revenue climbed 12.1% to ₹18.149 crore in Q4 from ₹16,193 crore a year ago.

Manish Hathiramani, proprietary index trader and technical analyst, Deen Dayal Investments on the Nifty’s trajectory

“The index seems to be taking a breather this morning. It has resisted at the 15,900 level yesterday but still seems poised to achieve 16,000-16,100. The current support is at 15,700 and as long as that holds on a closing basis, traders can rest assured the trend continues to remain on the upside and any bout of selling or correction can be well utilized to accumulate long positions on the Nifty.”

Smallcap indices in green

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Hyundai Motor Group chases local chipmakers to cut exposure to shortage

Hyundai Motor Group is in talks with South Korean chip companies to help it reduce reliance on foreign supplies amid a global shortage that has halted assembly lines at automakers around the world, four people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Hyundai officials have met with local “fabless” firms – which design chips but outsource manufacturing to the likes of TSMC and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd – as it explores long-term strategies to better diversify its supply chain, according to two people at local fabless firms who met with Hyundai.

Gold extends losing streak to fourth day on worries over Fed taper talk

Gold prices fell on Wednesday for a fourth straight session, hurt by a stronger dollar as investors awaited the outcome of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s latest meeting for clues on possible tapering of economic support measures.

Spot gold was down 0.1% at $1,857.55 per ounce, by 0320 GMT. U.S. gold futures were steady at $1,857.50.

Market opening

The Sensex opened at 52,782.21, up 9.16 points, or 0.02%, while the Nifty was at 15,847.50, down 21.75 points, or 0.14% on Wednesday. All sectors except FMCG, media opened in red.

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Alibaba Victim of Huge Data Leak as China Tightens Security

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. was the victim of a months-long web-scraping operation by a marketing consultant that siphoned up sensitive data including usernames and phone numbers, according to a court case that wrapped in June.

A central Chinese court ruled that an employee of a consultant that helps merchants on Alibaba’s Taobao online mall was guilty of dredging up more than a billion data items on Taobao users since 2019, using that to serve clients. The court imposed jail terms of more than three years on the staffer and his employer, alongside fines totaling 450,000 yuan ($70,260).

None of the customer data was sold and Alibaba’s users didn’t incur financial losses from the episode, the company said in a statement. (Bloomberg)

Twitter to lose its status as intermediary platform

Apna raises $70 million led by Insight Partners, Tiger Global

Apna, a professional networking and jobs platform for blue-and-grey collar workers, has raised a $70 million in a Series B funding round led by Insight Partners and Tiger Global. Existing investors, Sequoia Capital India, Lightspeed India, Greenoaks Capital and Rocketship VC also participated in the round.

With this, Apna has raised over $90 million so far and is now valued at $570 million, within 16 months of the product launch.

The firm will use the proceeds to strengthen its presence in existing cities and expand further over the next six months to help restart India’s economy as it recovers from the covid-19 pandemic.

Market opening

Markets are likely be marginally higher on Wednesday while trends in SGX Nifty suggest a flat opening of Indian benchmark indices. On Tuesday the BSE Sensex ended at 52,773.05, up 221.52 points or 0.42% and the Nifty closed at 15,869.25, up 57.40 points or 0.36%.

Petrol close to breaching ₹100 in Bengaluru now

Fuel prices were hiked again to touch record highs on Wednesday after remaining unchanged for a day.

In the national capital, petrol got costlier by 26 paise, while diesel rose by 13 paise, according to price notification by the oil retailers.

After the latest revision, a litre of petrol in Delhi is retailing at ₹96.66, whereas diesel costs ₹87.41 per litre. In Mumbai, petrol is being sold at ₹102.82 per litre, while diesel has reached ₹94.84 per litre. (Read here)

Asian markets off to a muted start

Asian stocks saw muted trading Wednesday after their U.S. peers retreated from all-time highs, with investors awaiting a policy decision from the Federal Reserve. Crude oil traded at the highest since 2018.

Shares were modestly higher in Japan and Australia, while South Korean stocks led gains. Hong Kong and Chinese equities slipped. U.S. futures were little changed. Earlier, weakness in the technology and real estate sectors helped snap a three-day winning streak for S&P 500 Index.

S&P 500 futures were little changed as of 10:30 a.m. in Tokyo. The S&P 500 fell 0.2%

Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.1%. The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.7%

Japan’s Topix index was 0.2% higher

South Korea’s Kospi index was up 0.5%

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.3%

Hang Seng Index was little changed

Shanghai Composite Index was little changed

SX Nifty was up 0.20%

US indices fall ahead of US FOMC meet

US stocks traded off the lowest levels of the day as investors mulled the consequences of a drop in retail sales and an uptick in producer prices while the Federal Reserve holds a two-day policy meeting. Crude oil traded at the highest level since 2018.

The real estate and technology sectors continued to weigh on the benchmark S&P 500 index in the last hour of regular trading.

The prevailing mood was calm the day before the Fed’s next policy decision — and possible hints about when the central bank will slow the pace of emergency asset purchases. The statement is set to include updated forecasts, and expectations are that officials would broadcast any taper plans well in advance.

The S&P 500 fell 0.2%, more than any closing loss since June 9 as of 3:11 p.m. New York time

The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.7%, more than any closing loss since June 3

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3%, more than any closing loss since June 9

The MSCI World index fell 0.1% at 3:11 p.m. New York time, the most since June 9