Equity benchmarks are extending their losses. While NSE Nifty declined 120.30 pts or 0.56 per cent to trade at 21,451.65, BSE Sensex was at 71,223.87, down by 276.89 pts or 0.39 per cent at 10:44 am.

Nifty Bank was at 45,933.35, down by 0.28 per cent; Nifty Metal at 7,596.80, down by 1.26 per cent; and Nifty Consumer Durables was at 31,895.95, down by 1.11 per cent.

Commenting on the outlook for Nifty50, Anand James, Chief Market Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said, “Besides the 21200 objective suggested yesterday, 20850 also needs to be brought into calculations, given the pace of declines. With that in perspective, we could look for seller exhaustion, should the Nifty not stretch much beyond 21448 initially, or if it manages to float above 21490 early in the day. No dramatic short covering spree is likely though with 21800 expected to act as a firm lid for all near term upsides.”

In its daily dossier, ICRA Analytics stated that the key benchmark indices were dragged down by index heavyweight banking stocks after a leading private sector bank posted flattish net interest margin in third quarter of FY24.

Losses were extended following the comments from the officials of US and European central bank, raising doubts of early rate cuts, it said. Lower than expected fourth quarter GDP growth data of China extended the losses further, it added.

Major stocks that gained on the NSE as of 11 am were Tech Mahindra, Axis Bank, BPCL, Sun Pharma, and Tata Motors, while major laggards were LTI Mindtree, Asian Paints, NTPC, HDFC Bank, and IndusInd Bank. The major stocks that hit 52-week high on the NSE were Oracle Financial Services Software.

Of the 3,706 stocks traded on BSE, 1,296 stocks advanced, 2,258 stocks declined, and 152 stocks were unchanged. Number of stocks that hit 52-high were 204, and those that hit 52-week low were 18.

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