Slippery slope

Nifty50: 17,245 ▼ 69 (-0.4%)  
Sensex: 57,684 ▼ 304 (-0.5%)

• After a gap-up opening, the markets slipped due to the weakness in the financial stocks and mixed cues from the international indices.
• 29 stocks from the Nifty50 pack ended in the red. 
• In the absence of any major domestic data releases, the markets will look for cues from the price movements of commodities, mainly the crude oil.

Among the Nifty sectoral indices, Metal (+1.2%) and Oil and Gas (+0.4%) were the top gainers, while Auto (-1.0%) and Financial Services (-0.8%) were the top losers. 

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Here are the top stories of the day.

Steelmakers hike prices

Indian steelmakers have, reportedly, increased their product prices in the range of ₹1,500-2,000 per tonne. The effective hike is around 2%. 

The price hike was necessitated due to a sharp jump in the cost of coking coal. Coking coal prices have more than doubled in the last month.

Indian Hotels eyes large QIP

The Tata Group-backed Indian Hotels could raise ₹2,000 crore via a qualified institutional placement (QIP), as per reports. The floor price for the issue is expected to be about ₹203 per share, which is 6% lower than today’s closing price. 

According to the management, in the coming months, occupancy is expected to be higher than pre-pandemic period. Also, tariffs have also gone up by 30% in leisure destinations. The company had raised nearly ₹2,000 crore at ₹150 per share via a rights issue in November 2021. Shares of other hotels stocks also witnessed strong investor interest today. 

CNG, PNG get pricey

Gujarat Gas announced a price hike of ₹3 in compressed natural gas (CNG) and piped natural gas (PNG) segments, according to reports. This implies a 4% increase in CNG and about an 8% rise in PNG prices. 

These price hikes are expected to cushion the company’s margins as gas prices are expected to rise from April 1. Meanwhile, shares of Mahanagar Gas were also upbeat and rose by 2.3%.

IPO corner

According to reports, the follow-on public offer (FPO) of diversified fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) company Ruchi Soya received strong interest from anchor investors. Foreign as well domestic investors applied in the anchor investor category. The FMCG player has reportedly allocated shares worth ₹1,290 crore to anchor investors. The company’s ₹4,300 crore FPO will open for subscription tomorrow. Click here to pre-apply for this FPO on Upstox.   

Good to know

What is qualified institutional placement (QIP)?

A qualified institutional placement (QIP) is a capital-raising tool for listed companies. In the past, raising capital in the domestic market involved a lot of complexity, therefore Indian companies used to raise capital from foreign markets. To prevent this, the market regulator SEBI introduced this process to make the raising of funds easier in the domestic market.

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