The main indices pared losses and traded near the flat line in early afternoon trade. The Nifty hovered at the 17,850 level. Banks, auto and financial stocks were in demand while IT and pharma stocks declined.

At 12:26 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, rose 18.33 points or 0.03% at 60,066.8. The Nifty 50 index was down 0.05 points.

The Sensex hit a record high of 60,339.28 in early trade.

The broader market declined. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.29% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index fell 0.04%.

The market breadth turned negative. On the BSE, 1,535 shares rose and 1,639 shares fell. A total of 213 shares were unchanged.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 231,820,895 with 4,748,055 deaths. India reported 299,620 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 447,194 deaths according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

In the last 24 hours, India recorded 26,041 new cases of COVID-19. The recovery rate currently stood at 97.78% with 29,621 recoveries in the last 24 hours taking the total recoveries to 3,29,31,972.

Economy:

The direct tax collections for the financial year 2021-22, as on 22 September 2021 showed that net collections are at Rs 5,70,568 crore, a year-on-year increase of 74.4%. In the last financial year, the net collection was Rs 3,27,174 crore, a Finance Ministry release stated on 24 September 2021. The net direct tax collection of Rs 5,70,568 crore, includes corporation tax of Rs 3,02,975 crore (net of refund) and personal income tax including security transaction tax (STT) of Rs 2,67,593 crore (net of refund).

The advance tax collection in the second quarter (1 July 2021 to 22 September 2021) of FY 2021-22 is Rs 1,72,071 crore, a growth of 51.50% over Rs 1,13,571 crore in the corresponding period in FY 2020-21. Refunds amounting to Rs 75,111 crore have been issued in the FY 2021-22 so far. The gross collection of direct taxes (before adjusting for refunds) for the FY 2021-22 stands at Rs 6,45,679 crore compared to Rs 4,39,242 crore in the corresponding period of the preceding financial year, registering a growth of 47% over collections of FY 2020-21.

Derivatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, jumped 5.21% to 17.805. The Nifty 30 September 2021 futures were trading at 17,872, at a premium of 8 points as compared with the spot at 17,864.

The Nifty option chain for 30 September 2021 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 75.6 lakh contracts at the 18,000 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 60.4 lakh contracts was seen at 17,000 strike price.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty IT index slumped 2.3% to 36,251.55, snapping its four day winning run. The IT index saw selling after rising 4.8% in four days.

Coforge (down 4.48%), Mindtree (down 3.95%), Mphasis (down 3.54%), HCL Tech (down 3.42%), L&T Infotech (down 2.89%), Tech Mahindra (down 2.88%) and Wipro (down 2.68%) were top losers in IT space.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Sansera Engineering advanced 3.04% to Rs 843.55 after various domestic and global asset managers acquired stake in the company. Abu Dhabi Investment Authority acquired 4.87 lakh shares of the company at an average price of Rs 821.48 per share. Concurrently, Nomura Funds Ireland bought 6 lakh shares of the firm at an average price of Rs 820.10 apiece. Further, IIFL Asset Management and IIFL Mutual Fund together purchased 8.67 lakh shares of Sansera Engineering via bulk deals on the NSE on Friday.

Biocon fell 1% to Rs 356.60 after the company's Malaysian subsidiary received six observations from the US drug regulator. The US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) conducted an on-site pre-approval inspection (PAI) of Biocon's Malaysian subsidiary Biocon Sdn. Bhd's manufacturing facility for insulin aspart between 13 and 24 September 2021. At the conclusion of the inspection, the agency has issued a Form 483 with a total of 6 observations across drug substance, drug product and devices facilities.

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