Bear grip

Nifty50: 17,221▼−103 (0.6%)
Sensex: 57,788 ▼−329 (0.5%)

• Markets opened lower and continued to drift downwards
• 36 stocks from the Nifty50 pack declined. 
• Among the Nifty sectoral indices, only Nifty Auto (+0.5%) closed in green.
• Whereas, Realty (-1.8%) and PSU Bank (-1.3%) were the top losers.

For more updates on F&O, click here.

Here are the top stories of the day.

Investor meet fails to enthuse ITC’s stock

Shares of FMCG major are down nearly 5% so far this week as its first ever investor meet failed to spark investor interest. Its management said the cigarette volumes are back to its pre-pandemic levels and it expects to gain market share provided the tax on cigarettes remains stable. 

It also indicated that it is open for demerger of the FMCG business or seperate listing of the IT business to unlock value. Similarly, as the hotel industry recovers, it would pursue demerger of its hotels. 

Paytm shares under pressure 

Shares of the fintech player fell nearly 13% Intraday and came close to its record lows. . Trading volumes surged as its mandatory one month lock-in period for anchor investors expired today. Anchor investors who buy shares ahead of the IPO have a lock-in period for their investments, before which they cannot sell their holdings.

Paytm had raised a mammoth ₹8,235 crore from anchor investors. Sapphire foods anchor lock in ends tomorrow and Latent view’s lock in ends on 20th December.

Made in India semiconductors

The government is reportedly planning to take up a proposal to set up a semiconductor mission in the country with a total outlay of ₹76,000 crore. This will be a step toward making India self-reliant in semiconductors in the light of global chip shortage. 

Semiconductors find wide applications in electronics that are used from smartphones to electric vehicles. Auto companies have faced production outages due to chip shortage on multiple occasions. Today, the Nifty Auto index was up 0.5%

IPO corner

The IPO of India’s second largest pharmacy retailer MedPlus was oversubscribed more than 50 times on day 3. Similarly, the public issue of defence and aerospace electronic solution provider Data Patterns has also received strong response. Its IPO was oversubscribed around 7 times on day 2.

HP Adhesives’ IPO, which is a relatively smaller issue, was also oversubscribed over 3 times on day 1. Besides these ongoing IPOs, Supriya Lifescience, which is an active pharmaceutical ingredients maker, will launch its public issue tomorrow. To apply and pre-apply for the IPOs on Upstox, click here.    

Closing bell

The markets have declined for the fourth consecutive session. The street expects that the US Fed may announce a faster pace of tapering amidst risk of persistent inflation. This coupled with eventual increase in the interest rates are structurally not a good sign for the equity markets. All major commodities including bullion are down. Meanwhile, the international markets are showing mixed reactions ahead of the US Fed meeting later today.

Good to know

What is AUM?

Assets under management (AUM) is the total market value of the investments that an entity manages on behalf of clients. It is used to evaluate performance of an investment company. A higher or growing AUM is usually considered as a positive indicator of quality and expertise of a fund manager. AUM could fluctuate daily, reflecting the flow of money in and out of a particular fund and the price performance.

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