Stock Market Today: All You Need To Know Going Into Trade On March 18

Most markets in Asia-Pacific region were trading on a mixed note as investors await interest rate decision from the Bank of Japan and Federal Reserve this week.

The Nikkei 225 was trading 638.50 points or 1.65% higher at 39,346.14, and the S&P ASX 200 was trading 12.10 points or 0.16% lower at 7,658.20 as of 06:21 a.m.

The Bank of Japan's rate decision is scheduled for Tuesday, while Federal Reserve is due to announce its rate decision on Wednesday.

The U.S. stock market fell as tech sold off and a pile of options expiring Friday threatened to trigger sudden price swings, according to Bloomberg.

The S&P 500 dropped to around 5,120, with trading volume that was 20% above the average of the past month. The Nasdaq 100 fell 1% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.5%.

Spot gold was trading flat at $2,156.060 an ounce, while Brent was trading higher at $85.41.

The GIFT Nifty was trading 48 points or -0.22% lower at 22,048.50.

India's benchmark stock indices snapped a four-week rally and recorded their worst fall in over four months on Friday, dragged by shares of Mahindra & Mahindra and Reliance Industries.

Small-cap and mid-cap indices recovered in the last part of Friday's trade but ended with a weekly loss.

The NSE Nifty 50 ended 150.10 points, or 0.68%, lower at 21,996.55, and the S&P BSE Sensex fell 453.85 points, or 0.62%, to close at 72,643.43.

Overseas investors turned net buyers of Indian equities on Friday after two consecutive sessions of selling.

Foreign portfolio investors mopped up stocks worth Rs 848.6 crore, while domestic institutional investors turned sellers and offloaded equities worth Rs 682.3 crore, the NSE data showed.

The Indian rupee closed weaker against the dollar on Friday after U.S. inflation data dashed hopes of a rate cut in the first half of the year from the Federal Reserve.

• Life Insurance Corp: The government has approved a 17% overall hike in wages for more than 1.10 lakh employees of the insurance giant.

• ITC: The company entered into a share purchase agreement with its arm, Russell Credit, to acquire a 45.36% stake in International Travel House.

• Asset Management Companies: Mutual funds reported their stress test results on Friday, following the market regulator's concern about "forth" in the mid- and small-cap space.

• Zee Entertainment: The company’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Punit Goenka, streamlined the technology and data vertical.

• Gujarat Gas: The company has invited expressions of interest from ceramic customers for the purchase of natural gas.

• Hindustan Aeronautics: The company signed a contract worth Rs 2,890 crore with the Ministry of Defence for the mid-life upgrade of 25 Dornier aircraft along with associated equipment for the Indian Navy.

• Jindal Stainless: The company supplied stainless steel for India’s first underwater metro line in Kolkata. This landmark project is worth Rs 4,965 crore.

• Adani Group stocks: The Adani group plans to invest over Rs 1.2 lakh crore (about $14 billion) across its portfolio companies that range from ports to energy, airports, commodities, cement and media in fiscal year starting April 1, according to a PTI report.

• Rail Vikas Nigam: The company received a Letter of Acceptance worth Rs 339 crore from Maharashtra Metro Rail for the design and construction of the Pune Metro Rail Project.

• Punjab National Bank: The bank, in its EGM, approved raising equity capital of up to Rs 7,500 crore through qualified institutional placements or any other permitted mode or a combination.

• Brigade Enterprises: The company announced the launch of BuzzWorks in Bengaluru. BuzzWorks introduces flexible and managed workspace solutions to cater to the evolving needs of modern businesses.

• Metro Brands: The company received an NCLT nod to demerge Metro Athleisure from the company.

• Housing & Urban Development Corp.: The company will consider fundraising up to Rs 40,000 crore in bonds or debentures on March 20.

• Dish TV India: The company appointed Manoj Dobhal as axecutive director, effective Friday.

• ICICI Prudential: The company redesignated Sandeep Batra as chairman of the board, effective June 30.

• Aditya Birla Fashion: The company received a no-objection observation from NSE and BSE for a merger with TCNS Clothing.

• Crompton Greaves: The company received a patent for a linear node tubular lighting system for 20 years.

• Lupin: The USFDA inspected the company’s manufacturing facility in Aurangabad from March 6 to March 15, 2024, and closed with the issuance of a Form 483 with one observation.

• CSB Bank: The company appointed BK Divakara as executive director for three years, effective Friday.

• SJVN: The company received a letter of intent from Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam for a 200 MW solar project.

• Vinati Organics: The Finance Ministry imposed an anti-dumping duty on the import of 'Para-Tertiary Butyl Phenol' for five years.

• Star Health and Allied Insurance: The company has been granted registration as an IFSC Insurance Office for setting up a branch office in Gujarat.

• KSB: The company received a letter of award of Rs 63.22 crore for a for a contract for 2500 solar water pumping systems under the PM-Kusum III Scheme.

• Omaxe: The company has acquired 34.55% of Secure Properties Pvt.'s equity shares and subscribed 35% of 'Omaxe be Together Amausi Busport' and 'Omaxe be Together Ayodhya Dham Busport', making them associate companies.

• Amber Enterprises: The company announced the incorporation of a wholly owned subsidiary, AT Railway Sub Systems, to specialise in manufacturing railway components and sub-systems for the rolling stock industry in India and overseas.

• GTPL Hathway: The company has completed the acquisition of Metro Cast Network India, increasing its holding from 34.34% to 50.10%.

• Ashoka Buildcon: The company acquired 4.9 crore shares of GVR Ashoka Chennai ORR from GVR Infra Projects. It will further acquire a total of 9.5 crore shares in GVR Ashoka Chennai ORR.

• IRCON International: The company received a Letter of Acceptance for the construction of a twintube unidirectional tunnel in Mizoram for Rs 631 crore.

• JSW Energy: The company's unit, JSW Neo Energy, received a letter of award from Solar Energy Corp for an additional 500 MW of wind capacity.

• Anup Engineering: The company entered into a pact to acquire a 100% stake in Mabel Engineering.

• RailTel Corp: The company received a work order worth Rs 130 crore from the Bihar Education Project Council.

• Krystal Integrated Services: The public issue was subscribed to 0.70 times on day 2. The bids were led by institutional investors (0.57 times), non-institutional investors (1.15 times), and retail investors (0.58 times).

• GMR Power and Urban Infra: F3 Advisors bought 1.57 crore shares (2.61%) at Rs 42.6 apiece, while Sahastraa Advisors sold 94.27 lakh shares (1.56%) at Rs 42.65 apiece and Setu Securities sold 35.74 lakh shares (0.59%) at Rs 42.42 apiece.

• Voltamp Transformers: Norges Bank bought 0.77 lakh shares (0.76%) at Rs 8,201.54.

• CMS Info Systems: Norges Bank bought 21.84 lakh shares (1.39%) at Rs 386.33 apiece, while UBS Principal Capital Asia sold 11.54 lakh shares (0.73%) at Rs 385.15 apiece.

• Dish TV India: Setu Securities bought 1.17 crore shares (0.64%) at Rs 17.26 apiece.

• Electrosteel Cast: Norges Bank bought 41.54 lakh shares (0.69%) at Rs 155.83 apiece.

• Gokaldas Exports: Norges Bank bought 3.47 lakh shares (0.57%) at Rs 733.21 apiece, while UBS Principal Capital Asia sold 3.9 lakh shares (0.64%) at Rs 730.92 apiece.

• Kopran: Quant Mutual Fund-Quant Small Cap Fund bought 2.5 lakh shares (0.51%) at Rs 255.41 apiece.

• South Indian Bank: Norges Bank bought 1.57 crore shares (0.75%) at Rs 29.35 apiece.

• Sundaram Finance: UBS Principal Capital Asia sold 6.63 lakh shares (0.59%) at Rs 3,797.03 apiece, Vanguard Emerging Markets bought 8.85 lakh shares (0.79%) at Rs 3,796.45 apiece and Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund bought 9.12 lakh shares (0.82%) at Rs 3,796.45 apiece.

• Man Industries: Promoter Man Finance bought 17,000 shares on March 12.

• Man Infraconstruction: Promoter Mansi P. Shah bought 2 lakh shares on March 14.

• Gokul Agro Resources: Promoter Ritika Infracon bought 1.72 lakh shares on March 14.

• Star Cement: Promoter Prem Kumar Bhajanka bought 2.64 lakh shares on March 12.

• Asahi India Glass: Promoter Dinesh K. Agarwal created the pledge of 10,000 shares on March 13.

• India Cements: Promoter EWS Finance and Investments created a pledge of 19.7 lakh shares between March 13 and 14.

• Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilizers: Promoter Zuari Agro Chemicals created a pledge of 75,000 shares on March 13.

• Capital Small Finance Bank: To meet analysts and investors on March 19.

• Parag Milk Foods: To meet analysts and investors on March 26 and 28.

• Choice International: To meet analysts and investors on March 20.

• Price Band changes from 10% to 5%: D B Realty.

• Price Band changes from 10% to 20%: Pearl Global Industries.

• Ex/record Dividend: Oil India.

• Moved into short-term ASM framework: Rico Auto Industries, Bigbloc Construction, Sindhu Trade Links.

• Nifty March futures down by 0.65% to 22,133 at a premium of 109.35 points.

• Nifty March futures open interest down by 2.75%.

• Nifty Bank March futures down by 0.67% to 46,694.7 at a premium of 100.6 points.

• Nifty Bank March futures open interest down by 0.27%.

• Nifty Options March 21 Expiry: Maximum Call open interest at 23,000 and Maximum Put open interest at 21,000.

• Bank Nifty Options March 20 Expiry: Maximum Call Open Interest at 47,000 and Maximum Put open interest at 44,000.

• Securities in ban period: Aditya Birla Fashion, Bharat Heavy Electricals, Biocon, Hindustan Copper, Manappuram Finance, National Aluminium, Piramal Enterprise, RBL Bank, Sail, Tata Chemical, Zee Entertainment Enterprise.

The Indian rupee closed weaker against the dollar on Friday after U.S. inflation data dashed hopes of a rate cut in the first half of the year from the Federal Reserve.