Nifty below 12,200, Sensex slips 75 points as retail inflation spikes

NEW DELHI: Domestic equity indices opened with a cut on Thursday as rising inflation figures back home and a higher number of death toll and infections due to coronavirus worried investors.

Retail inflation jumped to over five-and-a-half-year high of 7.59 per cent in January on persistently high prices of vegetables, pulses and protein-rich meat and fish.

Meanwhile, China's Hubei province, where the virus is believed to have originated, reported 242 new deaths, double the previous day's toll, and confirmed 14,840 new cases on February 12.


BSE flagship Sensex slipped 75 points to 41,490 while NSE benchmark Nifty dipped 21 points to 12,180. Broader market indices were faring in-line with their headline peers as Nifty Smallcap was up merely 0.01 per cent at 6,176 while Nifty Midcap dipped 0.12 per cent to 18,147. Nifty 500 was down 0.13 per cent at 10,023.


Barring Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Pharma, all sectoral indices were trading with losses on NSE. Nifty Private Bank was the biggest loser, down 0.63 per cent at 17,210. Nifty FMCG and Nifty Auto were among other losers. Nifty Pharma was up 0.20 per cent and Nifty PSU Bank 0.90 per cent.

In the 30-share pack Sensex, SBI was the biggest gainer, up 2.08 per cent. Titan, ONGC, Nestle India and Infosys were among other major gainers on the index.

IndusInd Bank that was downgraded by Moody’s on Tuesday continued to fall and was down 1.19 per cent at Rs 1262. HCL Tech and Kotak Mahindra Bank also fell 1 per cent each.

Torrent Power, whose net profit rose over 76 per cent to Rs 420.62 crore in December quarter, was up 7.65 per cent at Rs 327.15 on BSE.

Globally, Asian stock markets wobbled while safe-havens such as the yen, gold and bonds rose as the number of new coronavirus cases and deaths in the outbreak's epicentre jumped.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was steady in morning trade but the news knocked the week's momentum from stock markets.

Japan's Nikkei was flat while Australia's ASX/S&P 200 index retreated from a record high. The Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong's Hang Seng wavered either side of unchanged.