Benchmark indices were trading over half a per cent lower on Thursday afternoon. After three consecutive days of rallying, market opened on a weak note amid mixed global cues. Indices slumped further in the first half, witnessing profit-booking across multiple counters and tracking losses in heavyweights such as HDFC.
At 1 pm, the BSE Sensex was trading at 59,155.98, up 402.35 points or 0.68 per cent. It recorded an intraday high of 59,557.87 and a low of 59,021.88. The Nifty 50 was trading at 17,663.70, up 116.30 points or 0.65 per cent. It recorded an intraday high of 17,781.15 and a low of 17,624.95.
Top gainers
Hero Motocorp, Bajaj Auto, Maruti, Axis Bank and Titan were the top gainers on the Nifty 50 while HDFC, SBI Life, ONGC, L&T and Grasim were the top laggards.
On the global front, US futures dipped even as overnight, the US stocks ended positive. FII selling has also been weighing on investor sentiments.
Separately, the service sector reported a slowdown in the pace of growth in January as the IHS Markit Services Purchasing Managers’ Index slumped to 51.5 in January from 55.5 in December owing to a surge in Covid-19 cases.
Auto in focus
On the sectoral front, while IT, realty, FMCG, oil & gas, pharma and private bank stocks witnessed pressure, auto, metal and PSU Bank gained.
Nifty IT and Nifty Realty were down 1.14 per cent and 1.16 per cent, respectively. Nifty Oil & Gas was down 0.94 per cent. Nifty Financial Services was down 0.75 per cent while Nifty FMCG was down 0.45 per cent. Nifty Pharma and Nifty Healthcare Index were trading 0.27 per cent and 0.39 per cent, respectively. Nifty Bank and Nifty Private Bank were down 0.03 per cent and 0.16 per cent, respectively.
Meanwhile Nifty PSU Bank was up 0.58 per cent. Nifty Auto was up 1.30 per cent while Nifty Metal was up 0.40 per cent.
Broader indices
As for the broader market, midcaps recorded increased pressure.
Nifty Midcap 50 was down 0.52 per cent while Nifty Smallcap 50 was up 0.07 per cent. The S&P BSE MIdcap was down 0.48 per cent while the S&P BSE Smallcap was up 0.04 per cent.
The volatility index softened 0.75 per cent to 18.51.