Benchmark indices were trading in the red on Monday, dragged by financials and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone stock.

The market opened in the red owing to a lack of positive triggers.

At 1 pm, the BSE Sensex was at 52,315.69, down 159.07 points or 0.30 per cent. It hit an intra-day high of 52,542.66 and a low of 51,936.31. The Nifty 50 was at 15,744.85, down 54.50 points or 0.34 per cent. It hit an intra-day high of 15,791.90 and a low of 15,606.50.

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Gaurav Garg, Head of Research, CapitalVia Global Research said, “In the morning session, Indian equity benchmarks remained in the red, owing to significant selling in prominent blue-chip stocks. Traders' sentiment turned a little septical as former RBI Governor D Subbarao raised concerns about the country's economic recovery being “very uneven” and “sharpening inequalities” between upper- and lower-income people.”

Divi’s Labs, Bajaj Finance, Tata Steel, Cipla and Dr Reddy’s were the top gainers on the Nifty 50 while Adani Ports, Coal India, NTPC, Kotak Bank and HDFC were the top laggards.

Adani Group stocks under selling pressure

Adani Group stocks were under significant selling pressure following the news of depository player National Securities and Depository Limited (NSDL) freezing accounts of three foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) that together held shares worth ₹43,500 crore of four of the Adani Group firms - AEL, AGEL, ATL and ATGL.

Adani Ports, the top loser on the Nifty 50 fell over 11 per cent. Adani Enterprises fell nearly 11 per cent. The other listed entities of the Group—Adani Green Energy, Adani Transmission, Adani Total Gas and Adani Power hit lower circuits at 5 per cent.

Pharma, IT gain focus

On the sectoral front, only IT and Pharma stocks were able to retain gains while financials dragged.

Nifty Bank and Nifty Financial Services were down 1 per cent and 0.87 per cent, respectively. Nifty PSU Bank was down 1.11 per cent while Nifty Private Bank was down 1.02 per cent.

Metals and Realty stocks also recorded losses. Nifty metal was down 0.81 per cent while Nifty Realty was down 1.09 per cent. Meanwhile, Nifty IT and Nifty Pharma were up 0.32 per cent each.

Broader indices

As for broader indices, midcap stocks witnessed selling pressure while small caps remained firm.

Nifty Midcap 50 was down 0.63 per cent while Nifty Smallcap 50 was up 0.05 per cent. The S&P BSE Midcap was down 0.98 per cent while the S&P BSE Smallcap was down 0.17 per cent.

The volatility index was up 5.01 per cent to 14.81.

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