While the Nifty managed to hold on to some gains, Pankaj Nijhawan, chief client officer at investment advisory firm Intellistocks said the bias clearly remains on the downside. “The index seems to be headed towards 9,360,” he told BloombergQuint by phone.
Nijhawan said a consistent close below 9,340 could take Nifty towards 9,100-9,000. He said investors can add to their existing positions at around those levels. “Investors who are invested should stay invested as the long-term uptrend remains very intact.”
Nijhawan has a contrarian call on the beaten down pharmaceutical stocks, but advised to stick with the large caps.
Shares of the country’s largest tinplate maker rose as much as 6.4 percent after a Mint report said the Tata Steel subsidiary plans to make its tinplate business independent of its parent.
The company said it will stop working as a downstream processing unit for Tata Steel and pursue expansion on its own, the report said quoting a letter sent to shareholders.
Tinplate Co, which converts hot-rolled coils into electrolytic tinplate for Tata Steel, now plans to buy such coils from the parent worth up to Rs 1,800 crore a year, the report added.
The stock slumped after the government said it will sell 5 percent stake via an offer for sale as it looks to meet the steep divestment target set in the Union Budget 2017-18.
The state-owned chemical company will offload 2.75 crore equity shares at a floor price of Rs 74.25 per share, it said in a stock exchange filing on Wednesday.
The centre is looking to raise Rs 200 crore through the stake sale, a senior finance ministry official had told BloombergQuint earlier on Wednesday.
Shares of the private sector lender gained 3.5 percent after it said its exposure to major portion of bad loans highlighted by the central bank was secured.
The bank said it had exposure on eight accounts that RBI had advised on initiating insolvency process. It said total fund-based outstanding of the bank on these accounts was Rs 5,071 crore while non-fund based outstanding was Rs 212 crore, according to its exchange filing.
It said the bank has secured around 80 percent of the outstanding. Provision held was 2,497 crore against this outstanding, it said in the filing.