Market recap for 18 March 2021

Nifty50: 14,557 ▼ 163 (-1.1%)

Sensex: 49,216 ▼ 585 (-1.1%)

The Indian markets fell for the fifth day in a row. The market breadth continued to be negative with 33 of Nifty50 stocks ending in the red. 

Amongst the Nifty sectoral indices, FMCG (+0.0%) and Metal (+0.0%) were barely positive, whereas IT (-3.0%) and Pharma (-2.3%) were top losers. 

*in BSE Sensex

Here are the top stories of the day.  

Auto stocks up on vehicle scrappage plan

• In a bid to provide a boost to the automotive industry, the government has announced the long-pending vehicle scrappage policy. 
• As per the policy, owners of old vehicles are likely to receive a scrap value of 4-6% of a new vehicle's ex-showroom price; a 25% rebate on the road tax for new personal vehicles; and a 5% discount on the price of a new car against a scrappage certificate. 
• Despite the weak market, stocks of auto majors such as Bajaj Auto (+2.9%), M&M (+0.9%), Tata Motors (+0.7%) and Maruti (+0.6%) closed in the green. 

Airtel leads in subscriber additions

• According to TRAI, Bharti Airtel added 6.9 million active subscribers in January, the highest in the industry. The overall active subscribers in the country rose to 979 million in January.
• Vodafone-Idea, too, witnessed a rise of 1.7 million in its active subscribers. Meanwhile, the active subscribers of Reliance Jio fell by 3.5 million, the steepest fall since April last year. Today, shares of Bharti Airtel rose 0.6%, while those of Vodafone-Idea rose 0.9%.

Adani Green raises funds from foreign banks

• The renewable energy company has raised $1.35 billion (~₹9,800 crore) in debt from a group of international lenders including Standard Chartered, BNP Paribas and Barclays Bank.
• The funds will be initially used to finance solar and wind energy projects with a cumulative capacity of 1.69 gigawatts in Rajasthan. News of the funds notwithstanding, Adani Green closed 1.9% lower. 

Welspun Corp bags large orders

• The Mumbai-based, large-diameter pipes maker has bagged orders for 93 KMT (kilometric tonnes) worth ₹777 crore in domestic and international deals.
• This comprises a 50 KMT order from a client in the middle-east, while the rest comes from Indian clients. The company’s order book stands at 586 KMT and is worth ₹5,300 crore. The stock gained 3.5% in a weak market.  

Closing bell

Despite a gap-up opening and positive global cues, Indian markets extended their losing streak this week. The factors that are contributing to the fall have not changed from yesterday, i.e. fear of inflation, the second wave of infections, and rising US Treasury yields. Surprisingly, the India VIX has also fallen in the last few days, indicating that lower volatility is expected ahead. This probably is because the market is still in a broad range and a breakout on either side would give directional cues to the option traders. 

Good to know

What is RSI?
Used in technical analysis, RSI or relative strength index is a measure of the number of days a stock increases in value relative to the number of days it decreases in value. As a rule of thumb, values over 70 suggest that the stock is overvalued, whereas values around 30 suggest that it is undervalued.

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