Nifty drops below 9,100-mark; Sensex slips over 150 points

Domestic markets on Wednesday opened in red as it fell nearly 0.6%. At 0919 hours BSE Sensex was trading at 29,325.42, down 160.03 points or 0.54%, while NSE Nifty was trading at 9,063.60, down 57.90 points or 0.63%.

On 30-share benchmark, among top gainers were Power Grid (0.70%), Axis Bank (0.63%), Infosys (0.37%), Cipla (0.21%) and Hindustan Unilever (0.01%). Among top losers were Bharti Airtel (-3.13%), Mahindra & Mahindra (-2.39%), ICICI Bank (-1.80%), Dr Reddy's Lab (-1.44%) and Tata Motors (-1.31%). 

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Investors will be closely watching two big announcements made by the government yesterday late-evening. In order to curb blackmoney floating in the country, the government proposed a fresh ceiling of Rs 2 lakh on cash transactions, which is lower than the Rs 3 lakh proposed in Budget 2017-18.

Moreover, in another announcement, the government made the Aadhaar card mandatory to file for income tax returns and also to apply for a permanent account number (PAN). 

Stocks in focus:

Avenue Supermart: Avenue Supermarts Limited (ASL) – operator of D-Mart retail stores, on its market debut on Tuesday closed at Rs 649.95 per piece on BSE, up Rs 341.75 or 114.30% compared to its IPO issue price of Rs 299 per share. 

With this blockbuster listing, ASL became the first company in twelve years to get listed at a premium of over 100%.

State Bank of India: State Bank of India (SBI), which will see five associate banks merge into it on April 1, has decided to shutdown almost half the offices of these banks, including the head offices of three of them. This process will start from April 24, as reported by IANS.

The five associate banks that will merge with SBI are: State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ), State Bank of Mysore (SBM), State Bank of Travancore(SBT), State Bank of Patiala (SBP) and State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH).

Bharti Airtel: Ookla named Airtel as the “Fastest Mobile Network” in India based on data from Q3 and Q4 of 2016. "When analyzing markets, like India, we take many factors into consideration, including dual SIM devices, network technology, device types, and more,” Ookla COO, Jamie Steven said.

But, on Tuesday Reliance Jio approached Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) stating that claims of Airtel being the fastest network were wrong.

IDBI Bank, Bank of Maharashtra and Dena Bank: According to an Economic Times report, state-owned IDBI Bank, Bank of Maharashtra and Dena Bank will receive a capital infusion from the government in lieu of preferential allotment of shares. IDBI Bank will get Rs 2,500 crore funding from the government, while BoM and Dena Bank will get capital allocation plan of Rs 300 crore and Rs 800 crore respectively.

Adani Enterprises: Adani Enterprises on Tuesday said it has acquired Adani Infrastructure Pvt Ltd (AIPL), which is yet to commence business operations.

AIPL with an authorised and paid up capital of Rs 5 lakh is a subsidiary of Adani Properties Pvt Ltd for development of infrastructure, a promoter group company. “The company has acquired 100% equity share capital of AIPL. The transaction is done at arm’s length basis...equity shares are acquired at a face value of Rs10 each,” the company said in a BSE filing.

On global front, Asian stocks fell as a sharp pullback in Wall Street on doubts about Donald Trump`s economic agenda prompted investors to rush to safe haven assets such as gold and government bonds, as reported by Reuters.

MSCI`s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.5% in early trades after it hit its highest level since June 2015 in the previous session. Early Asian market openers such as Japan and Australia fell more than 1%, the report added.