FIRST TRADE: Sensex slips over 300 pts; Nifty below 21,450; LTIMindtree drops nearly 10%

Stock market today: The Indian share market on Thursday, January 18, slipped for the second day in a row as the latest U.S. data dampened expectations of a rate cut as early as March, while HDFC Bank's U.S.-listed shares slid overnight, hinting at continued selling pressure. At the time of filing the report, both indices traded over half a per cent lower. The S&P BSE Sensex was down 382.25 points at 71118.51, and the NSE Nifty was down 111.75 points at 21,460.2.

"At elevated valuations, the market needs only a trigger for a sell-off, and yesterday this trigger came in the form of HDFC Bank’s worse-than-expected results. It is also important to understand that there was a sell-off in other emerging markets like Taiwan and Korea, indicating that this is an emerging market correction driven by FPI outflows. The FPI sell-off figures in India yesterday were huge, at Rs 10,578 crore. In the context of rising bond yields in the US, FPIs may sell again. But this is likely to be countered by DII buying in fairly valued large caps with growth potential," said Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Dr. Vijayakumar added that investors may wait and watch for this turbulence to subside. The resilience of IT stocks in this crash is an indication of the strength of the sector. Apart from IT, large caps like RIL, ICICI Bank, L&T, and Bharti have the strength to tide over this turbulence.

Meanwhile, the Nifty Mid Cap 100 traded flat with a negative bias, while the Small Cap 100 traded in green. High-beta Nifty Bank was down 1.1 per cent at 45,555.85, dragged by weakness in HDFC Bank.

BUZZING STOCKS

Oracle Financial Services shares were up over 15 per cent after the company's operating margins remained at upper levels for eight quarters.

Aarti Industries shares were up over 4 per cent after the company secured a four-year supply contract worth over Rs 6,000 crore with a multinational conglomerate company.

Conversely, LTIMindtree shares dropped nearly 10 per cent a day after the company missed Q3 estimates.

HDFC Bank shares were down nearly 3 per cent a day, declining for the second day in a row post-Q3 results.

Asian Paints shares slipped over 3 per cent a day after the company posted Q3 results.

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company shares were down over 6 per cent after the company posted weak Q3 results.

IEX shares were down over 7 per cent on concerns about market coupling.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Shares were off to a tepid start on Thursday, weighed down by a murky economic outlook in China and expectations that the global rate easing cycle may not come as early as some had initially thought.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.1 per cent, though it was still languishing near Wednesday's two-month low of 490.45 points.

(With inputs from agencies.)

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