The key equity barometers traded with slight losses in early trade. Nifty opened at 23222 and hit a high of 23282 in first half hour of trade. Nifty Financial Services, Nifty Private Bank and Nifty Bank shares declined, while Nifty Pharma shares advanced.
At 09:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, inched down 591.31 points or 0.79% to 74,236.94. The Nifty 50 index decreased by 203.45 points or 0.87% to 23,243.35.
The broader market outperformed the frontline indices. The BSE 150 MidCap Index shed 0.93% and the BSE 250 SmallCap Index edged lower by 0.37%.
The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 1357 shares gained and 2452 shares declined. A total of 227 shares were unchanged.
Nifty Financial Services index shed 1.80%. The index has posted modest losses of 2.27% in last one month and edged lower by 3.74% over last one year. Max Financial, shedding 9.25%, led the losers followed by HDFC Life Insur., falling 7.18% and Cholaman.Inv.&Fn, edging lower 4.64%, respectively. Out of 20 index constituents, 17 are reporting loss today.
Nifty Private Bank index fell 1.74%. The index has eased by 0.50% in last one month and moved higher by 1.13% over last one year. IndusInd Bank, losing 3.93%, led the losers followed by Axis Bank, easing 3.74% and IDFC First Bank, down 3.11%, respectively. All 10 index constituents are reporting losses today.
Nifty Pharma index edged higher by 0.16% to 27196. The index has edged up 3.09% in last one month and surged 21.76% over last one year. Sai Life, adding 1.78%, led the gainers followed by Piramal Pharma, up 1.40% and Abbott India, gaining 0.99%, respectively. Out of 20 index constituents, 11 are reporting gains today.
In NIFTY500, Caplin Point Lab is the top gainer today, rallying 5.33% to Rs 2940. The counter has soared 23.97% in last one year. It recorded an average volume quantity of 11068.17 in last five sessions compared to 19527.41 over last one month.
Asian markets traded slightly lower on Thursday. China’s Shanghai composite is lower by 0.93%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is trading lower by 0.76%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 is higher by 1.12%.