Lagatar24 Desk
Mumbai, Nov.18: The Indian equity benchmarks gave up early gains on Thursday to trade lower ahead of the weekly expiration of index futures and option contracts later in the day. The Sensex climbed 348 points from its greatest point of the day, while the Nifty 50 index fell to an intraday low of 17,840 after touching a high of 17,945. Strength in Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra, Infosys, and Larsen & Toubro was countered by weakness in ITC, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, and HDFC Bank.
The Sensex was down 44 points at 59,964 at 9:43 a.m., while the Nifty 50 index was down 25 points at 17,873.
Overnight, all three main U.S. equities finished the day lower as investors pondered whether strong consumer activity in the face of rising inflation could prompt the Fed to reduce stimulus more quickly than previously anticipated.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.58 percent, the S&P 500 was down 0.26 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.33 percent.
The MSCI world equity index, which measures 45 countries’ stocks, dropped 0.29 percent.
Back home, eight of the National Stock Exchange’s 15 sector indices were trading lower, headed by the Nifty Auto index, which was down more than 1%. The Nifty IT, Pharma, Media, Metal, and Oil & Gas indices all dropped between 0.5 and 1%.
Select FMCG, banking, and consumer durables indexes, on the other hand, were trading higher.
Selling pressure also hit mid- and small-cap stocks, with the Nifty Midcap 100 index down 0.4 percent and the Nifty Smallcap 100 index falling 0.2 percent.
Tata Motors was the leading gainer on the Nifty, rising 2.31 percent to 518. Tech Mahindra, Hero MotoCorp, Divi’s Labs, ONGC, Dr Reddy’s Labs, HCL Technologies, Cipla, Eicher Motors, Tata Steel, and UPL all saw their stock prices fall by 1-1.45%.
On the other hand, gainers included Hindalco, Bajaj Finserv, State Bank of India, ITC, HDFC Bank, Power Rid, and Grasim Industries.
