Bears kept their grip on the market with benchmark indices trading lower Thursday afternoon.

Market opened on a weak note amid weak global cues. Indices dragged further in the first half, with selling witnessed across multiple counters. Metals managed to retain gains.

At 1 pm, the BSE Sensex was trading at 59,899.17, down 453.65 points or 0.75 per cent. It hit an intraday high of 60,293.25 and a low of 59,744.60. The Nifty 50 was trading at 17,870.10, down 147.10 points or 0.82 per cent. It recorded an intraday high of 17,971.35 and a low of 17,826.90.

Titan, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Hindalco and Reliance were the top gainers on the Nifty 50 while Tech Mahindra, ONGC, Bajaj Finserv, State Bank of India and SBI Life were the top laggards.

Metals shine

On the sectoral front, all indices except Nifty Metal and Nifty Consumer Durables were in the red.

Financials and realty witnessed increased pressure. FMCG, IT, auto and pharma also dragged.

Nifty Bank and Nifty Financial Services were down 1.07 per cent and 1.22 per cent, respectively. Nifty Private Bank was down 0.92 per cent while Nifty PSU Bank was down 0.95 per cent. Nifty Realty was down 2.38 per cent.

Nifty Auto, Nifty IT and Nifty Pharma were trading nearly 1 per cent lower. Nifty FMCG was down 1.06 per cent.

Meanwhile, Nifty Metal was trading 0.65 per cent higher while Nifty Consumer Durables was up 0.21 per cent.

Broader indices

Broader indices were also in the red.

Nifty Midcap 50 was down 1.14 per cent while Nifty Smallcap 50 was down 0.90 per cent.

The S&P BSE Midcap was down 0.80 per cent while the S&P BSE Smallcap was down 0.45 per cent.

The volatility index rose 2.59 per cent to 16.73.

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