Amid alternate bouts of buying and selling, benchmark Indices were trading flat in the afternoon on Tuesday. While metal stocks were dragging the key indices, energy and FMCG stocks lent support.

At 1 pm, the BSE Sensex was at 51,965.82, up 28.38 points or 0.05 per cent. It hit an intraday high of 52,228.65 and a low of 51,808.88. The Nifty 50 was ruling at 15,578.90, down 3.90 points or 0.03 per cent. It hit an intraday high of 15,660.75 and a low of 15,528.30.

Gaurav Garg, Head of Research, CapitalVia Global Research Limited, said, “The market is trading negatively after erasing its initial gains. Traders are careful that the second wave of coronavirus illnesses has had a significant influence on the country’s corporate sentiment. FICCI’s Business Confidence Survey states that after reaching a decadal high of 74.2 in the previous survey round, the overall business confidence index has plummeted to 51.5 in the current round.”

Also read: Indian shares rise on downward trend in Covid-19 cases

Separately, according to the IHS Markit survey, India’s Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) slipped to 50.8 in May against 55.5 in April, its steepest fall in 10 months.

ONGC, Bajaj Finance, State Bank of India and HDFC were the top gainers on the Nifty 50 while Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Grasim, ICICI Bank and Ultratech Cement were the top laggards.

Bajaj Auto gains on May sales numbers

Bajaj Auto rallied in the morning session after the company announced its sales figures for May. The company posted a 114 per cent growth in its total vehicle sales at 2,71,862 units in May 2021 compared to May 2020. It was trading 1.19 per cent higher on the NSE in an otherwise volatile market.

Metals lose shine

On the Sectoral front, all indices except Nifty Auto, Nifty FMCG and Nifty Media were in the red.

Nifty Metals was down 1.61 per cent. Nifty Private Bank was down 0.72 per cent while Nifty PSU Bank was down 0.42 per cent. Nifty Realty was down 0.95 per cent.

Also read: Sensex, Nifty to open positive on robust economic data

Meanwhile, Nifty FMCG was up 0.20 per cent.

Broader indices underperform

Broader indices were in the red as midcap and smallcap stocks underperformed as compared to the benchmarks.

Nifty Midcap 50 was down 0.67 per cent while Nifty Smallcap 50 was down 0.21 per cent. The S&P BSE Midcap was down 0.26 per cent while the S&P BSE Smallcap was down 0.36 per cent.

Notably, the volatility index rose 3.90 per cent to 17.55.

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