Benchmark indices erased early gains to trade in the red during the afternoon on Tuesday.
The market, after opening on a strong note amid mixed global cues, erased all early gains as pharma stocks witnessed selling pressure. Auto and IT stocks also dragged.
On the global front, while US stocks ended marginally higher overnight, a majority of Asian bourses were in the red.
At 1 pm, the BSE Sensex was trading near the day’s low of 52,568.70 at 52,581.53, down 270.74 points or 0.51 per cent. It hit an intraday high of 53,024.70. The Nifty 50 was trading at 15,745.50, down 78.95 points or 0.5 per cent. It hit an intraday high of 15,881.55 and a low of 15,745.50.
Hindalco, Bajaj Finserv, SBI Life, Bajaj Finance and Nestle India were the top gainers on the Nifty 50 while Dr Reddy’s, Axis Bank, Cipla, Adani Ports and Sun Pharma were the top laggards.
Metals shine
On the sectoral front, a majority of indices were in the red. While pharma, auto, private banks and IT witnessed losses, metals and PSU Bank stocks gained.
Nifty Pharma was down 3.19 per cent. Nifty Auto and Nifty IT were down 0.62 per cent and 0.52 per cent, respectively. Nifty Private Bank was down 0.70 per cent.
Index Outlook: Key indices stare at barrier ahead
Meanwhile, Nifty Metal was up 0.57 per cent and Nifty PSU Bank was up 0.41 per cent.
Volatility index up
As for broader indices, Nifty Midcap 50 was down 0.61 per cent while Nifty Smallcap 50 was up 0.09 per cent. The S&P BSE Midcap was down 0.54 per cent while the S&P BSE Smallcap was down 0.14 per cent.
The volatility index rose 7.08 per cent to 13.33.
Dr VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said, “The mid-small-cap segment is witnessing high volatility in response to results since the institutional activity is low in this segment. The newbie retail investors are now focused on this segment. But this segment can correct hugely when the market turns bearish and, therefore, investors have to be cautious.”