Sensex Today | Share Market Crash Live Updates: Sensex falls 700pts, Nifty down 240pts; FMCG, IT, Pharma top losers

Sensex Today Live : ICICI Securities unveiled a delisting plan on 25 June 2023, which involves a scheme of arrangement. According to this scheme, for every 100 shares held, ICICI Securities shareholders will be allotted 67 shares of ICICI Bank. Once implemented successfully, ICICI Securities will function as a fully owned subsidiary of ICICI Bank.

As of 31 March 2023, ICICI Bank held a 74.85% stake in ICICI Securities, with the remaining 25.15% being publicly owned. The purpose of this delisting is to leverage the synergies between the two firms, aligning with ICICI Bank’s emphasis on strategies centered around the customer. (Read the full story here.)

Sensex Today Live : All the sector indices were in the red, with the IT and Pharma indices leading the charts in terms of losses. The IT index was down 2.93%, and the Pharma index was down 2.19%, followed by the FMCG index down 2.18%. The Heathcare index was down 1.87%, and the Oil & gas index was down 1.73%.

Sensex Today Live : The broader market was in the red, with the BSE MidCap index down 1.31%, and the BSE SmallCap index down 0.92%. 

Sensex Today Live : Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Auto, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Hindalco, and Bajaj Finserv, were the top gainers on the Nifty 50, while BPCL, TCS, Tata Consumer Products, Cipla, and Britannia, were the top losers. 

Sensex Today Live : Bajaj Finance, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Bharti Airtel, and ICICI Bank, were the top gainers on the Sensex, while TCS, Nestle India, IndusInd Bank, Wipro, and Infosys, were the top losers.

Sensex Today Live : Indian benchmark indices were deep in the red on Tuesday, ahead of key interest rate announcement by the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday.

At 3 pm, Sensex was down 677.11 points, or 0.93%, at 72,071.31, and Nifty was down 217.65 points, or 0.99%, at 21,838.05.

Sensex Today Live : Tata Steel today informed the exchanges today that its board has approved the company to raise ₹2,700 crores through the issue of non-convertible debentures on private placement basis.

Sensex Today Live : Balkrishna Industries BUY (Maintained)

CMP: INR 2,268

Target Price: INR 2,820

Base finally favourable to drive 10%-plus growth for India OHT exports

India OHT exports in Jan’24, at USD 151mn, were higher by 13% YoY as against USD 139mn average monthly exports in CY23.

This was driven by strong growth in EU/US agri segment, with overall agri segment exports being up ~17% YoY vs. OTR exports being up 6%.

In US, base turned favourable from Jan’24 as expected in both agri/OTR segments, leading to YoY growth of 32%/23%; in comparison, EU saw growth of 23%/5% with the effects of a favourable base already kicking in a quarter back.

We expect, in FY24, India OHT exports to deliver ~10% growth YoY on a base of USD 139mn a month on an average in CY23; against that, we build in 12% volume growth for BIL to our FY24 estimates.

We maintain BUY on BIL with a DCF-based unchanged TP of INR 2,820, implying 25x FY26E EPS

Sensex Today Live : Tatva Chintan (BUY)

Atul Ltd (REDUCE)

Galaxy Surfactants (REDUCE)

Rossari Biotech (ADD)

EPL (BUY)

Chemplast Sanmar (BUY)

Sudarshan Chemical (BUY)

PCBL (BUY)

BlueJet Healthcare (BUY)

1) SRF: Ref-gas prices were under pressure with R-22 prices dipping 3.7% QoQ; R-32 prices fell 8.2%, while R-134a prices were up 40.2% and R-125 prices rose 3.3% QoQ in Q4FY24-TD. Ref-gas export volumes have declined in Q4FY24-TD given a high base. In the packaging films segment, BOPP spreads have dipped again sharply, while BOPET spreads are stable on a low base.

2) Gujarat Fluorochemicals: PTFE prices fell 1.8% QoQ/11.3% YoY to INR 931 in Q4FY24-TD, while volumes rose 2% YoY to 954te. Other fluoropolymers prices dipped 3.4% QoQ and volumes rose 1.6% YoY to 319te.

3) Archean Chemical: Bromine prices decreased 6.5% QoQ; exports volumes for the company fell 42% YoY to 494te. SOP prices were up 38.8% QoQ and export volumes dropped 78.1% YoY to 27te.

4) Clean Science: Q4FY24-TD volumes in guaiacol dropped 13.7% and prices fell 0.5% QoQ to INR 308, while phenol prices dipped 10.9% QoQ to INR 77.

5) EPL: LLDPE prices decreased 8.6% QoQ to INR 77.

6) PCBL: Carbon black export prices were up 0.1% QoQ to INR 110, and export volumes were up 48.4% YoY to 26kte.

7) Chemplast: S-PVC/paste-PVC import volumes fell slightly, down 1.7%/22.3% YoY at 186kte/5.7kte.

8) Rossari: Input prices saw a sharp QoQ drop.

9) Atul: 2,4-D spreads were up 1.8% QoQ to INR 67, and epoxy spreads dipped 8.3% QoQ to INR 87 in Q4FY24-TD.

(Note: All prices are in INR/kg; Q4FY24-TD data includes number only for the month of Jan’24)

Sensex Today Live : CERC has finalised the tariff regulations for FY24-FY29. The regulator has largely maintained the RoE for existing thermal, hydro and transmission assets while incentivising new hydro assets with 17% RoE and reduced the RoE for new transmission assets to 15%.

There are no material changes in the final order versus the draft order, except a few, which are as follows:

1) Thermal – incentive of INR 0.55/unit for off peak (vs. 50p/unit for off – peak earlier).

2) Transmission – minor changes in O&M expenses.

3) Hydro –relaxed normative availability norms for certain plants.

The new regulations are beneficial for thermal gencos owing to higher renovation and maintenance cost, higher incentive for off-peak supply, and hydro gencos for higher RoE on new assets, but slightly negative for NLC TPS-II as normative PAF has been increased to 70% (vs. 50% in draft).

Sensex Today Live : In 2014, Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party set the tone for their election campaign with a ‘policy paralysis’ argument, attributing numerous failures to the Congress-led government that they believed were obstructing business ease in India. After gaining power, Modi’s administration rolled out several significant business-focused policy initiatives. While some of these have been viewed as transformative, others are still awaiting substantial impact. (Read the full story here.)

Central Bank of India informed the exchanges today that it has entered into a distributorship agreement with PPFAS Asset Management Company for the distribution of their mutual fund products to its customers on a Do it yourself (DIY) model.

The participation by both the entities in this arrangement will result in offering the customers of Central Bank of India, an opportunity to unlock the value of their savings through various mutual fund products offered by PPFAS Asset Management Company Ltd, the company said in its exchange filing.

PPFAS Asset Management Company Ltd. (PPFAS AMC) has been promoted by Parag Parikh Financial Advisory Services Pvt. Ltd., and incorporated in year 2011. It is in the asset management space offering Mutual Fund Products under six schemes. Overall, the Fund House handles over Rs. 66,000 crores of AUM as on 29th February, 2024.

Sensex Today Live : Indian benchmark indices were deep in the red on Tuesday, led by weak signals from global peers.

At 2 pm, Sensex was down 641.01 points, or 0.88%, at 72,107.41, and Nifty was down 220.75 points, or 1%, at 21,834.95.

Sensex Today Live : REC Limited today declared an interim dividend of ₹4.50 per each equity share for the financial year 2023-24.

The company said the record date for the interim dividend is Thursday, March 28, 2024, and the dividend shall be paid on or before April 17, 2024 to those shareholders, whose names appear (a) as beneficial owners in the statement(s) furnished by the depository(ies) as on the close of business hours on March 28,2024 in respect of shares held in electronic form; and (b) as members in the register of members on March 28, 2024 in respect of physical shares.

Sensex Today Live : The share price of BEML has seen an impressive increase of up to 136 per cent over the last year, and there may still be potential for further expansion.

The brokerage firm Prabhudas Lilladher has begun tracking the stock and has given it a ‘buy’ rating, setting a target price of ₹3,345. This suggests a 16 per cent potential for growth and values it at a P/E (price-to-earnings ratio) of 26 times FY26E.

According to the brokerage firm, the BEML stock is presently trading at a P/E of 29.4 times and 22.3 times for FY25E and FY26E earnings, respectively. (Read the full story here.)

Sensex Today Live : Empirical evidence indicates that the trigger for bear markets within small-caps (>20% fall) has historically emanated from being in a high valuation zone, followed by a slump in economic growth and/or ‘monetary tightening cycle,’ both of which appear unlikely currently given the recent India GDP upgrades and benign interest rate outlook.

Our ‘size allocation’ framework has been signalling that small-caps are at their most unattractive relative valuation zone in terms of their risk premium over large- caps, although it is getting mitigated in the recent correction.

On the other hand, our PAT/GDP framework indicates that the capex cycle driven by infra, real estate, leisure, manufacturing, etc. is continuing; this can drive peak corporate profit cycle ahead and small-caps will be the largest contributors to this upcycle given their large overlap with the aforementioned sectors.

If a major unknown risk-off macro event were to play out, then in such a scenario small and mid-caps in their current state would offer low margin of safety in terms of their ‘earnings yield spread’, even after the recent correction in stock prices. Given that such assets have relatively low liquidity only exacerbates the problem in a risk-off environment.

‘PAT to GDP’ ratio in the listed space has been rising and reached mid-cycle range of 4.9% (4.3% in FY23). From a long-term cycle perspective, the maximum upside in terms of ‘PAT/GDP’ going ahead is left within small-caps, which have reached 0.7% of GDP compared to their cycle peak of 1.2% of GDP.

Sensex Today Live : Jindal Stainless today informed that exchanges that it is partnering with JBM Auto for the fabrication of over 500 energy-efficient and light-weight stainless steel electric buses.

Jindal Stainless will provide JT Tubes, made up of low-carbon, chromium-manganese austenitic stainless steel to JBM Auto.

JBM Auto, with an order book of over 5,000 electric buses, is progressing in a transitional manner towards fabricating its electric buses from the earlier used, carbon steel to stainless steel now.

This would result in lightweighting, enhanced performance, higher strength and durability of the buses.

Commenting on this development, Abhyuday Jindal, Managing Director, Jindal Stainless, said, “Through our association with JBM Auto, we look forward to furthering our mission to contributing to greener modes of public transport.”

Adding to this, Nishant Arya, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, JBM Auto, said, “Our commitment to innovation is driven by embracing smart, connected, autonomous, and shared mobility solutions… I am confident that our collaboration with Jindal Stainless will act as a catalyst in achieving our mission.”

Currently, JBM Auto is also working towards transitioning its export orders for electric buses, into energyefficient stainless steel buses. The material will be supplied through Jindal Stainless’ domestic service arm specialising in customisation and value addition, Jindal Stainless Steelway Limited (JSSL).

The JT Tubes, provided by JSSL, will be used in making the superstructure of the buses, tailored for domestic operations in Telangana and suitable to combat its corrosive environment.

JBM Auto will commence fabrication of stainless steel buses this month.

Sensex Today Live : Indian benchmark indices were deep in the red on Tuesday, led by weak signals from global peers.

At 1 pm, Sensex was down 601.49 points, or 0.83%, at 72,146.93, and Nifty was down 196.30 points, or 0.89%, at 21,859.40.

Sensex Today Live : Investment strategies are not a ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution. A method that has been increasingly adopted in recent times is the ‘bucket’ strategy. This strategy involves segmenting investments into distinct categories or ‘buckets’, each tailored to various factors. Each bucket corresponds to a specific financial objective and time frame. The quantity of buckets and their distribution will fluctuate based on an individual’s financial situation, risk appetite, and financial aspirations. The three typical buckets are designed to cater to short-term savings, intermediate-term objectives, and long-term retirement investments. (Read the full story here.)

LTIMindtree informe the exchanges today that Chetana Patnaik will be taking over the role of CHRO from April 1, following the internal movement of incumbent CHRO Manoj Shrikarkhane to a different role.

Patnaik had started with L&T in 2012, initially serving as the Head of Strategic Leadership Talent Acquisition as part of A.M. Naik’s & S.N. Subrahmanyan’s office in Mumbai.

In this role she built the leadership talent pipeline for L&T Group including the Executive Board of the listed entities, succession planning, and facilitating the Mentoring Programs for Naik and Subrahmanyan.

In October 2020, she ascended to the position of Head – Human Resources & CSR for the Transportation Infrastructure business, an independent company of L&T.

In her new role, she will take care of the entire gamut of HR function for a workforce of 6,000-plus, which includes creating a future ready talent pipeline, strengthening the bottom of the pyramid, focused learning, and development interventions across levels along with creating a culture of inclusion and learning through emphasis on organization development and diversity initiatives.

Sensex Today Live : PC Jeweller, in an exchange filing, informed that the company’s board ois set to meen on March 22 to consider raising funds. The company did not disclose the quantum of fund raise its board will be considering.

The company, in the exchange filing, said, “A meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on Friday, March 22, 2024, inter-alia, to consider and approve raising of funds by way of Further Public Offer, Rights Issue, American Depository Receipts / Global Depository Receipts / Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds, Qualified Institutions Placement, Debt Issue, Preferential Issue or a combination thereof or any other method as may be considered appropriate, subject to necessary regulatory, statutory and other approval(s), if any.”

Sensex Today Live : Global optical and digital solutions company Sterlite Technologies today informed the exchanges that it will be showcasing its Glass-to-Gigabit capability at one of the leading industry events in Europe – FTTH Conference 2024 in Berlin, Germany.

STL’s Glass to Gigabit capability showcase encompasses the company’s integrated capability to manufacture optical products – starting from its own glass preform to optical connectivity products, highlighting its commitment to building advanced optical fibre networks across Europe.

With over 30 years of Optical expertise, STL is amongst six players globally to have end-to-end capability across the fibre value chain, starting with its glass preform, fibre, cables and finally, Optical Connectivity solutions.

With extensive experience in the region and its advanced manufacturing set-ups in Italy, STL has been a key partner to the regional service providers, delivering purpose-engineer solutions, meeting the fibre demand and reducing lead times across Europe.

At FTTH Conference 2024, STL is showcasing its Optical networking and connectivity solutions, specially developed to solve the requirements across different network architectures.

Sensex Today Live : All sector indices  were deep in the red, with heavyweight indices like IT (down 2.16%) and FMCG (down 2.01%), leading the charts in losses. 

Sensex Today Live : The broader market was in the red, with the BSE MidCap index down 1.41%, and the BSE SmallCap index down 1.07%.

Sensex Today Live : Bajaj Finance, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Auto, Hindalco, and Kotak Mahindra Bank, were the top gainers on the Nifty 50, and Nestle India, BPCL, Tata Consumer Products, TCS, and Cipla, were the top drags. 

Sensex Today Live : Dr. Reddy’s informed the exchanges that it has received approval to launch Versavo (bevacizumab), which is indicated for the treatment of several types of cancers including metastatic colorectal cancer, advanced non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer, recurrent glioblastoma, metastatic renal cell carcinoma, advanced cervical cancer, ovarian cancer and metastatic breast cancer, in the UK

Previously, Dr. Reddy’s had launched Versavo in India in 2019 and subsequently in other countries such as Thailand, Ukraine, Nepal and Jamaica. In Colombia, the product was launched under the brand name Persivia.

Sensex Today Live : HCLTech today informed the exchanges that the company, in collaboration with CAST, a semiconductor intellectual property (IP) cores provider, plan to scale their partnership to offer customized chips to enable original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) across industries accelerate their digital transformation and automation journeys.

HCLTech will enhance design verification, emulation and rapid prototyping of its turnkey system-on-chip (SoC) solutions by leveraging silicon-proven IP cores and controllers from CAST.

This will help OEMs in varied industries including automotive, consumer electronics and logistics, to significantly reduce engineering risk and development costs.

Vijay Guntur, President, Engineering and R&D Services, HCLTech, said, “CAST shares our vision for innovative, industry-leading electronic systems design. Their high-quality and well-supported IP cores, coupled with HCLTech’s system integration design expertise, will enable us to deliver superior custom chips to our customers worldwide,”.

Sensex Today Live : There were only 5 stocks in the green on the Sensex. They were Bajaj Finance, Bharti Airtel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank, and Titan, whereas Nestle India, TCS, HCL Tech, IndusInd Bank, and Power Grid Corp., were the top drags on the index. 

Sensex Today Live : Indian benchmark indices had extended their losses on Tuesday, led by weak signals from global peers.

At 12 pm, Sensex was down 709.67 points, or 0.98%, at 72,038.67, and Nifty was down 231.75 points, or 1.05%, at 21,823.95.

Sensex Today Live : Grasim Industries today announced an investment from the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, for ₹1,250 crores (equivalent to approximately $150 million) by way of subscription to Non-Convertible Debentures (NCD) to be issued by the Company.

The Sustainability-Linked NCDs will support the Company’s investment in paint manufacturing. IFC’s investment will accelerate Grasim’s decarbonization drive through the increased adoption of renewable energy and water recycling in the paint manufacturing process.

Recently, Aditya Birla Group Chairman, Kumar Mangalam Birla, announced the launch of products and services under its new decorative paints brand, “Birla Opus”, aiming for Rs.10,000 Cr gross revenue within 3 years of full-scale operations.

All six manufacturing plants will be fully sustainable with zero liquid discharge and equipped with 4th generation manufacturing technology to manage supply chain processes at lightning speed, zero defects and end-to-end traceability.

Sensex Today Live : India’s merchandise exports grew 11.9% YoY in Feb’24 (the fastest in 20 months), with exports of engineering goods (+15.9% YoY), petroleum products (+5.1% YoY), chemicals (+33% YoY) and pharmaceuticals (+22.2% YoY) joining the steadily-soaring electronics exports (+54.8% YoY) in driving the recovery.

Imports grew 12.2% YoY, primarily because of a 133.8% YoY increase in gold imports, while oil imports were unchanged YoY despite a 1.1% YoY rise in Brent crude price.

Services exports grew 10.8% YoY and services imports 0.2% YoY in Jan’24, and the services surplus widened by 17.7% YoY. For the fiscal YTD, the services trade surplus widened 20% YoY.

Given a quarterly incomes surplus of a bit more than USD12bn, the 8.2% YoY reduction in the merchandise deficit should yield a CAD (current account deficit) of just 0.6% of GDP in FY24.

ISM manufacturing new orders suggest much stronger export growth by Q2FY25 and beyond, while abundant supplies of shale should kept Brent below USD90/bbl next year, so we expect a current account surplus of 0.5% of GDP in FY25.

Sensex Today Live : Shares of Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd (HPCL) have experienced a nearly 23% drop since reaching an all-time high of ₹595 each on 16 February. This downward trend could suggest investor unease due to the potential for fuel price reductions in the lead-up to the general elections.

These concerns have been validated with the government’s recent announcement of a ₹2 per litre decrease in the price of petrol and diesel.

This marks the first price reduction since May 2022, indicating the conclusion of the period of high marketing margins that oil marketing companies (OMCs) have benefited from during the nine months ending in December (9MFY24). (Read the full story here.)

Sensex Today Live : Kotak Institutional Equities’ dealer checks suggest that cement price cuts continue in March 2024, the fifth consecutive month of price declines.

All-India prices are down by 5.2% qoq in 4QFY24 as per our checks, led by East and South.

Demand remains robust and we expect 7-8% industry demand growth in 4QFY24E.

We see operating margins for cement producers to have hit a near-term peak in 3QFY24 and expect margins to contract in 4QFY24 notwithstanding marginal energy cost deflation and operating leverage.

We trim earnings and FV across coverage and see downside risk to consensus earnings for FY2025-26E. SRCM and TRCL are our top SELLs in the coverage.

Sensex Today Live : ICICI Securities met with Dr. Alok Misra, CEO and Director of MFIN, to understand the underlying business trends and key developments in NBFC-MFI sector. Mishra said the MFI sector continues to be resilient with stable collections.

Key Takeaways

Amid news of mounting regulatory concern over NBFC sector, NBFC-MFIs are better placed given microfinance industry is already operating on cashless disbursements post demonetisation and FY24 YTD growth remained around 13%.

While weighted average lending rate for top-17 players has increased by 200bps to 23.7% since spread cap removal, the increase was largely due to increase in cost of funds as well as on account of losses incurred during covid.

Some players being outlier might have attracted regulator attention but most MFI players are operating as per MFIN’s code of conduct with board approved pricing policy.

Total Punjab portfolio stands at INR 59bn with exposure to highly impacted districts at around INR8bn; collections have either improved or stabilised since Dec’23 levels.

Sensex Today Live : Over the past year, mid and small-cap stocks have seen extraordinary returns, with both the Nifty Midcap and Nifty Smallcap indices soaring by approximately 50 percent. This is in contrast to the benchmark Nifty, which rose by over 29 percent during the same period.

However, since February this year, both of these broader market indices have been undergoing a correction.

Motilal Oswal noted in a recent report, “In early February 2024, Mid and Small Caps had a premium of 24 percent and 29 percent respectively over Nifty, which sharply corrected to 14 percent for both. This is partly due to the relative strength in Large Caps and a steep 12 percent correction in the Small Cap Index from its peak in February 2024.” (Read the full story here.)

Sensex Today Live : JBM Auto informed the exchanges today that JBM Ecolife Mobility Private Limited, a subsidiary of the company has been declared as L1, and awarded the tender as a bus operator for procurement, supply, operation and maintenance of 1,390 electric buses, and development of allied electric and civil Infrastructure on gross cost contracting (GCC) basis, under the PM-eBus Sewa Scheme.

The company said that it has acknowledged the Letter of Confirmation of Quantities eligible for award as issued by Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL).

Sensex Today Live : Indian benchmark indices had extended their losses on Tuesday, led by weak signals from global peers.

At 11 am, Sensex was down 572.18 points, or 0.79%, at 72,176.24, and Nifty was down 185.65 points, or 0.84%, at 21,870.05.

Sensex Today Live : Royal Sense had a robust debut on the BSE on Tuesday, March 19, with the stock opening at ₹129.20, marking a 90% premium over the issue price of ₹68.

However, the stock later moderated its gains and was trading at ₹122.74 around 10:05 am.

The Royal Sense IPO, which was open for subscription from Tuesday, March 12 to Thursday, March 14, 2024, was a fixed price issue amounting to ₹9.86 crore and consisted exclusively of a fresh issue of 14.5 lakh shares. The SME IPO elicited a strong response from investors, with subscriptions exceeding 8.5 times on the final day of bidding.

As previously reported by Mint, the SME IPO received 1,09,94,000 share applications against the 12,90,000 shares offered on Thursday. The portion set aside for retail investors was oversubscribed 7.32 times, while the non-institutional investors’ portion was oversubscribed 9.72 times.

The IPO allocated 645,000 shares, representing 44.48% of the total, to non-institutional investors, and an equal number to retail investors.

Sensex Today Live : Signoria Creation’s share price made a remarkable debut, listing at a premium of 101.5% over the issue price, at ₹131 per share on the NSE SME. The strong listing was anticipated by investors, as indicated by the robust subscription and the grey market premiums (GMP).

According to investorgain.com, the grey market premium for Signoria Creation’s IPO was +60. This implies that Signoria Creation shares were trading at a premium of ₹60 in the grey market.

Furthermore, this suggested that the expected listing price for Signoria Creation was ₹125 per share, which is 92.31% higher than the IPO price of ₹65. This takes into account the upper end of the IPO pricing band and the current premium in the grey market.

Sensex Today Live : On Tuesday, March 19, InterGlobe Aviation (IndiGo) saw its share price surge by nearly 3% to reach a new all-time high of ₹3,339 during the morning session on BSE. The shares opened at ₹3256.45, up from the previous close of ₹3248.10, and rose approximately 2.8% to achieve this new peak. By around 10:15 am, the stock was trading 1.25% higher at ₹3,288.65.

As of the close on March 18, the share price of IndiGo has appreciated by roughly 72% over the past year, a performance that significantly surpasses the 25% gain of the benchmark Sensex during the same period.

The substantial increase in the stock price over the year has resulted in a spike in its price-to-earnings (PE) ratio, a crucial valuation metric that indicates the relative costliness or cheapness of a company’s share price in relation to its earnings. As per Trendlyne, the trailing twelve-month PE of the stock stands at 17.7, which is higher than the industry median. (Read the full story here.)

Sensex Today Live : Japan’s central bank on Tuesday scrapped its negative interest rate as it finally began unwinding one of the world’s most aggressive monetary easing programmes.

The maverick policy dating back to 2013 was aimed at jump-starting economic growth and inflation after the country’s “lost decades” of stagnant activity and prices in the world’s number four economy.

In its first increase in 17 years, the Bank of Japan said it was lifting its short-term policy rate from -0.1 percent to between zero and 0.1 percent.

Officials “assessed the virtuous cycle between wages and prices, and judged it came in sight that the price stability target of two percent would be achieved in a sustainable and stable manner”, it said.

The bank also said it would call an end to other unorthodox policies including its yield curve control programme on bonds and the purchase of risk assets such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs), saying they had “fulfilled their roles”.

Sensex Today Live : Ashok Leyland today announced a strategic alliance with Minus Zero, an autonomous driving technology start-up with an aim to deploy autonomous solutions at scale in commercial trucking.

The company said, the initial focus of this collaboration will be on developing tailored autonomous trucking solutions for ports, factory operations and corporate campuses.

And future endeavors would include expanding into hub-to-hub applications and long-haul trucking, subject to evolving regulatory frameworks surrounding autonomous driving.

The company said the core of this alliance is the seamless integration of Minus Zero’s industry-first autonomous driving platform that leveraging its nature-inspired AI technology, into Ashok Leyland’s fleet of commercial vehicles.

This collaboration aims for safe and scalable adoption of autonomous driving in commercial vehicles.

With global regulations and infrastructure evolving to support autonomous driving, this collaboration can extend to offer joint product offerings to international markets.

N. Saravanan, Chief Technology Officer, Ashok Leyland said: “Ashok Leyland has been looking for ways to reduce the cost of logistics in India in line with the Government’s National Logistics Policy. We see a role for autonomous driving in select sectors in achieving this and we have been partnering pioneering startups in this area. Minus Zero’s capabilities and plans impressed us, and we are excited to be working with them to develop India-specific solutions, that can be scaled globally. We see spin-off benefits in developing cost-effective active safety solutions to reduce the road accidents”

Gagandeep Reehal, CEO and Co-founder, Minus Zero said: “Ashok Leyland brings decades of experience in delivering high quality products at scale and we’re excited to partner with them in this journey of accelerating autonomous driving in India and globally. With our Nature-inspired AI, we are bringing a paradigm shift by building Foundational AI models for autonomous driving. This partnership marks the beginning of India’s Autonomous Driving story.”

Sensex Today Live : Indian benchmark indices had extended their losses on Tuesday, led by weak signals from global peers that were awaiting interest rate decisions from central banks across countries.

At 10 am, Sensex was down 522.29 points, or 0.72%, at 72,226.13, and Nifty was down 170.95 points, or 0.78%, at 21,884.75.

Sensex Today Live : For a considerable duration, HDFC Bank, Hindustan Unilever (HUL), and Asian Paints were considered the epitome of equity market investments. Despite occasional periods of stagnation, the general consensus was that investing in India’s leading private sector bank, the largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) company, and the biggest paints corporation was a safe bet.

Year after year, these three corporations rewarded investors’ trust by consistently increasing their market share, asserting their supremacy over competitors, and exhibiting robust growth in earnings and stock price appreciation.

However, as the saying goes, even the best things come with an expiration date. (Read the full story here.)

Sensex Today Live : On March 18, Tata Steel announced to the stock exchanges that its UK division has resolved to halt the coke ovens’ operations at the Port Talbot facility in Wales due to a decline in operational stability. The company had earlier indicated that several of its heavy-end assets in Port Talbot have reached their end-of-life capability. To counterbalance the move, Tata Steel UK plans to ramp up coke imports, as per the company’s statement.

Sensex Today Live : All indices across sectors were in the red, barring Metal and PSU Bank, which were up 0.95%, and 0.40%, respectively. 

Among the top drags were the IT, FMCG, and Auto indices.

Sensex Today Live : The broader market were mixed, with the BSE SmallCap index up 0.06%, and the BSE MidCap index down 0.27%. 

Sensex Today Live : Tata Steel, Hindalco, Adani Enterprises, UPL, and Bajaj Auto, were the top gainers on the Nifty 50, while TCS, BPCL, Nestle India, Apollo Hospital Enterprises, and Wipro, were the top drags. 

Sensex Today Live : Only six of the 30 stocks on the Sensex were in the green on Tuesday morning. These included Bajaj Finanace, Power Grid Corp., Sun Pharma, SBI, NTPC, and ITC. Among the top drags on the index were TCS, Wipro, Nestle, Bajaj Finserv, and Asian Paints. 

Sensex Today Live : Inox Green Energy Services today announced that its subsidiary I-Fox Windtechnik India Private Limited (I-Fox) has won an order from NLC India Ltd. (NLCIL), a Navratna PSU of Govt of India, for the restoration of 33 wind turbine generators (each 1.5 MW) of NLCIL’s wind power plant located in Tenkasi District in the state of Tamil Nadu.

The company said, the scope of the contract comprises supplies of materials/spares and other activities for the restoration of the 33 WTGs within a period of 8 months, with a revenue realisation of ~ INR 39.5 crores (inclusive of taxes) during the contract period.

SK Mathu Sudhana, CEO of IGESL, said, “We are delighted to receive another order from NLC India, a Navratna PSU, after securing the contract for comprehensive O&M of 51MW WTGs for 5 years during the last year… We are progressing well on our targets on all fronts.”