The domestic equity barometers pared losses in afternoon trade. The Nifty hovered near the 17,000 mark. Fears of monetary policy tightening, geo-political tensions of Russia invading Ukraine and firm crude oil prices dented investors sentiment. At 13:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 915.98 points or 1.58% to 56,942.17. The Nifty 50 index lost 288.15 points or 1.67% to 16,989.80. In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index declined 1.94% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index slipped 1.20%. The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 1,175 shares rose and 2,130 shares fell. A total of 98 shares were unchanged. The Budget session of Parliament is set to commence on 31 January 2022 and will conclude on 8 April 2022. The government will present the Budget for fiscal 2022-23 on 1 February 2022. The Economic Survey is likely to be tabled on 31 January 2022 after the president's address. On the political front, developments in the upcoming assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Punjab, and Manipur will be closely watched. Polls in all the five states will be held between 10 February 2022 and 7 March 2022 in seven phases. The counting of votes and the result will be declared on 10 March 2022. COVID-19 Update: In the last 24 hours, India saw a marginal rise in fresh cases, reporting over 2.86 lakh (2,86,364) on Thursday. With around 3.06 lakh (3,06,357) recoveries, the number of active cases has declined to 22 lakh (22,02,472). The daily positivity rate has increased slightly to 19.59%, while the weekly positivity rate is now 17.75%. Economy: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised its forecast for growth in India's gross domestic product (GDP) in FY23 by 50 basis points (bps) to 9%. India's GDP growth forecast for FY24 was also raised by 50 bps to 7.1%. Explaining the upward revision in an update to its World Economic Outlook report, the IMF said it expects an improvement in India's credit growth which would boost consumption and investment and better-than-anticipated performance of the financial sector. Gainers & Losers: Cipla (up 1.92%), SBI (up 1.88%), Axis Bank (up 1.70%), Indian Oil Corporation (up 1.03%) and NGC (up 0.88%) were the top index gainers. Tech Mahindra (down 4.37%), HCL Tech (down 4.16%), Eicher Motors (down 4.15%), Titan Company (down 3.65%) and Wipro (down 3.54%) were the top index losers. Stocks in Spotlight: Bharat Electronics (BEL) was up 0.05% to Rs 204.35. BEL and Hyperion Global Group have entered into a contract to develop, manufacture and supply Internet of Things (IoT) devices for the US market. Macrotech Developers fell 2.50% to Rs 1251.45. Lodha's consolidated net profit jumped 23.6% to Rs 286.38 crore on a 36% jump in net sales to Rs 2,059.44 crore in Q3 FY22 over Q3 FY21. TeamLease Services surged 11.26% to Rs 4226.30 after the company's consolidated net profit rose 31.05% to Rs 29.97 crore on 38.16% increase in revenue from operations to Rs 1,762.08 crore in Q3 December 2021 over Q3 December 2020. Powered by Capital Market - Live News |