Midday Market Update: Sensex, Nifty Pare Losses; I.T. Stocks Decline
India’s stock benchmarks tumbled at the open, amid slide in global equities after a sharp selloff on Wall Street following a hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation data. But Sensex and Nifty pared most of the losses, aided by gains in FMCG, Financials and Metal stocks, while IT stocks declined.
The Sensex lost 150 points or 0.24% to 60,424.45 on the BSE. The 30-stock index shed over 1,150 points to an intraday low of 59,417.12. The Nifty 50 fell by similar magnitude to 18,037. Among Nifty 50 constituents, 26 stocks rose while 24 fell. NTPC Ltd , Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd, IndusInd Bank Ltd, State Bank of India and Eicher Motors Ltd were the top gainers. Infosys, Tech Mahindra, TCS, HCL Technologies Ltd and Wipro Ltd were the top losers.
The broader indices outperformed their larger peers with MidCap gauge little changed and SmallCap gaining 0.2%. Eleven of the 19 sectoral indices compiled by BSE gained.
The market breadth is skewed in the favour of bears. About 1,628 stocks rose, 1,705 fell and 138 remained unchanged.
