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Vedanta shares will be in focus on Wednesday after the company received 83% creditor approval for its proposed demerger, clearing a crucial hurdle for its restructuring plan. The proposal required support from at least 75% of creditors by debt value to move forward. With this approval, Vedanta is set to proceed with splitting its businesses into independent entities, allowing each vertical to operate separately.

Deven Choksey, MD, DRChoksey FinServ Pvt. Ltd, says Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) previously short sold their holdings in the F&O market and are now making cash market deliveries while withdrawing funds. This situation is expected to resolve soon. There may be some capitulation, especially in the high valuations of small and mid-cap stocks, but large-cap stocks, particularly in the Nifty 50, are showing more stable valuations. The question on everyone's mind is how much more pain to go before we actually see at least a sustained recovery, if not that, at least the selling should abate. Deven Choksey: I believe that we are at the tail end of selling in the markets. Maybe the larger part of the pain is over. The data of FPI selling from October onwards till date, shows that except for a couple of months in between, in this month we are likely to see a little lower selling compared to what in previous months we had.

Ashi Anand, Founder & CEO, IME Capital, says he would understand if there is further downside to the market. However, due to the strong long-term outlook for India, major declines are not expected. The main worry is with smallcap stocks. In larger-cap indices, a drop of 5-10% seems manageable. But with smallcaps, if retail investors start to panic, liquidity can vanish quickly, leading to significant losses. Therefore, he recommends that investors should stay cautious. Anand also says that for people with a slightly longer-term horizon, some attractive buying opportunities exist in Digital and some could emerge in capital markets and real estate and capital goods spaces. All these companies have run up very considerably. These are also stocks that have led the fall, and have all fallen more than the overall markets. How much more of a selling are we likely to see or do you think that the end is near now? Ashi Anand: That is really the question on everyone's mind. We do not necessarily think we are at the absolute bottom. There could potentially be further downsides. Just to understand that in the overall context, markets have doubled from before pre-COVID levels taking the COVID fall. But if you look at the largecap indices, they have doubled from pre-COVID. You are down only 10%. Smallcaps were up 300%, and are down only about 20%.

The allotment of shares which was finalised on Monday is done through a lottery system.

Foreign holdings of U.S. Treasuries fell in December as the two largest foreign holders of the government debt, Japan and China, both cut their portfolios, data from the Treasury Department showed on Tuesday. Holdings of U.S. Treasuries fell to $8.513 trillion in December from $8.633 trillion in November. Holdings had reached $8.679 trillion in September.

NSE SME platform on Wednesday, February 19. Ahead of their listing, the shares of the company are trading with a grey market premium (GMP) of Rs 4-5 or 5% in the unlisted market.

U.S. dollar held firm on Wednesday on the back of tariff concerns and tense Russia-Ukraine negotiations, while the New Zealand dollar slid after the central bank delivered a super-sized interest rate cut. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand reduced its benchmark rate by 50 basis points to 3.75% on Wednesday as widely expected. The central bank has now cut rates by 175 basis points since August as the central bank races to boost a sluggish economy and curb rising unemployment.

Hexaware Technologies shares are set to make a debut on the NSE and BSE platforms on Wednesday. However, the grey market premium (GMP), ahead of the listing, has vanished to stand at 0%. Thus, the GMP indicates subdued demand and cautious sentiment among investors as the absence of any premium highlights the uncertainty surrounding the stock's performance post-listing.

Oil prices edged higher on Wednesday amid oil supply disruptions in the U.S. and Russia and as markets awaited clarity on the Ukraine peace talks. Brent crude futures gained 20 cents, or 0.3% at $76.04 a barrel at 0146 GMT, climbing for a third day.

NSE SME platform today, Wednesday, February 19. Ahead of the listing, the company's shares are reflecting no Grey Market Premium (GMP), indicating a 0% listing gain over their IPO price. Thus, the GMP indicates a flat demand among the market participants as the premium in the grey markets.

Asian stocks are poised for early losses as the threat of a broader global trade war and geopolitical uncertainty continued to weigh on investors. Shares in Australia dropped 1% shortly after opening Wednesday, with National Australia Bank Ltd. plunging by more than 8% after it announced a fall in earnings. Equity index futures for Hong Kong and Shanghai pointed to declines while contracts for Tokyo’s benchmark was little changed. That’s after a surge in chipmakers saw the S&P 500 edge higher and top its January record despite a slide in most big techs.

When markets resume trading today, Vedanta, RVNL, Max Healthcare Institute, Allcargo Gati and Affordable Robotic and Automation Limited (ARAPL) will be in focus due to various related developments.

Global stocks have become the most popular asset class with investors, who are showing the biggest willingness to take risk in 15 years, according to a survey by Bank of America Corp. Fund managers' cash levels fell to the lowest since 2010, while 34% of participants said they expect world equities to be the best-performing asset in 2025, the survey showed. A net 11% indicated they were underweight bonds.

Indian Continent Investment (ICIL), a Sunil Mittal-led promoter group entity of Bharti Airtel, on Tuesday sold a 0.84% stake, or 51.1 million shares, in India's second-largest telecom carrier through block deals for ₹8,485.11 crore. Of the shares sold, 12 million were acquired by Bharti Telecom (BTL)-the main promoter-level controlling company of Bharti Airtel-while the balance shares were lapped up by a host of global and local marquee investors including GQG Partners, Fidelity, Lazard, ICICI Prudential MF and SBI Life, according to people familiar with the matter. Mittal family-backed ICIL sold shares at ₹1,660 apiece, as per the block deal data.

Giving his take on yesterday's action, Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities said that Nifty witnessed another day of volatility as the index failed to take a clear direction. «In the short term, Nifty might remain a 'sell on rise' as long as it stays below 23,150. Support is placed at 22,800, and a fall below this level might trigger further correction. Immediate resistance is placed at 23,000,» he said.

Vedanta Limited's latest non-convertible debenture (NCD) issuance faced tepid demand, forcing the non-ferrous metals company to scale down its fundraising from an initial ₹3,500 crore to ₹2,600 crore. Despite offering headline yields of 9.40% and 9.50%, Vedanta unofficially agreed to pay investors an additional 25 basis points, effectively pushing the real cost to 9.65% and 9.75%. Citibank had the mandate for the NCD raise.

NSE Clearing, the clearing house of the National Stock Exchange, has issued a fresh demand of ₹104 crore on the BSE as a contribution to the Settlement Guarantee Fund (SGF), according to sources. The demand is based on a recent stress test held on January 25, and BSE has been asked to provide the required contribution by February 28, one of the sources cited said.

Stock market investors enjoyed lofty annual returns over the past two years. However, 2025 may not offer a «three-peat,» investment analysts say.

Indian rupee weakened to its all-time low on Monday in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump announcing fresh tariff plans, which drove regional currencies lower, while persistent portfolio outflows remained a sore point for the local unit. The rupee weakened to 87.95 against the U.S. dollar before closing at 87.4750, down slightly on the day.

On the BSE, NGL Fine Chem(down 20.00 per cent), Tilaknagar Ind(down 19.98 per cent), Systematix Sec(down 19.95 per cent), Banco Products(down 19.65 per cent) and Excel Ind(down 19.23 per cent) stood among the top losers in today's trade.

Balrampur Chini Mills Ltd.(up 1.15%) and KM Sugar Mills Ltd.(up 0.32%) stood among the top gainers.