FIRST TRADE: Sensex rises nearly 200 pts; Nifty above 22,350; ITC up 6%

Stock market today: The domestic equity market on Wednesday, March 13, edged higher amid buying in ITC, TCS, and HDFC Bank stocks.

On the sectoral front, too, broad-based buying was seen. On the global front, Asian shares notched seven-month highs on the back of record peaks on Wall Street as investors mostly shrugged off slightly hotter-than-expected US inflation, betting it wouldn't derail interest rate cuts expected by the middle of the year.

Last seen, both indices were up over 0.30 per cent: the S&P BSE Sensex traded 265.56 points higher at 73,933.52 while the NSE Nifty was up 65.45 points at 22,401.15. 

Meanwhile, Nifty Mid Cap 100 and Small Cap 100 traded in the green. Nifty Bank was up 0.30 per cent at 47,423.

"In the near term, investors should focus on the sustained weakness in the broader market, particularly the small-cap segment. The excessive valuations in these segments, driven by the irrational exuberance of retail investors, have been a concern for many months now. But it has taken the strong message from the regulator SEBI to trigger a correction in the Nifty Smallcap index by 10 per cent from the February 8 peak," said Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services. 

Dr. Vijayakumar added that it is important to understand that 396 stocks are in the lower circuit, indicating that there is more pain to come in this segment. Actions from mutual funds also indicate excessive valuations in the broader market. 

Further, as per him, ICICI Prudential has joined two other leading funds in stopping lump-sum investments in their mid- and small-cap schemes. More are likely to follow. The net impact of this shift would be more money flowing into large caps. Outperformance is likely to continue.

BUZZING STOCKS

ITC shares were up over 6 per cent after BAT's sold 3.5 per cent stake in the company.

Swan Energy shares were down over 9 per cent a day after the block deal. 

Oriental Rail Infrastructure shares were up over 3 per cent after the company received an order for the supply of an additional 91 wagons from Railways.

Likhitha Infrastructure shares were up over 3 per cent after the company bagged a Rs 106 crore order from HPCL. 

Signature Global (India) shares were down over 4 per cent after the affordable housing project launched in Gurugram.

Conversely, Paytm shares were down 4 per cent after Reuters reported approval of a third-party provider licence application possible from NPCI.

Vedanta shares were down over 1 per cent after SEBI ordered the company to pay Cairn Rs 77.6 crore and barred the firm's entire board, including his brother Navin and daughter Priya, from accessing the capital market for the same.

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