Benchmarks drift lower in early trade; breadth negative

The key equity indices were trading with small losses in early trade. The Nifty traded below the 18,100 level. All the sectoral indices on the NSE were in the red.

At 09:26 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 204.79 points or 0.34% to 60,840.95. The Nifty 50 index lost 80.75 points or 0.44% to 18,083.35.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.25% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index shed 0.15%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,198 shares rose, and 1,410 shares fell. A total of 128 shares were unchanged.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 319.23 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net buyers to the tune of Rs 1,225.96 crore in the Indian equity market on 18 January, provisional data showed

Stocks in Spotlight:

State Bank of India (SBI) fell 0.31%. SBI has raised Rs. 9718 crore through its second infrastructure bond issuance on Wednesday at coupon rate of 7.70%. The proceeds of bonds will be utilized in enhancing long term resources for funding infrastructure and affordable housing segment. The tenor of these bonds is 15 years.

Wipro declined 0.42%. The IT major announced the opening of its newest Wipro-AWS Launch Pad Center in Toronto, Canada. Joining a global network of Wipro-AWS Launch Pad Centers, this new one will enable customers in Canada to accelerate their move to the cloud and build industry leading solutions leveraging Wipro and AWS expertise.

Persistent Systems rose 0.69%. The company reported 8.2% rise in consolidated net profit after reversal of export incentive to Rs 237.95 crore on a 5.9% increase in revenues to Rs 2169.36 crore in Q3 FY23 over Q2 FY23.

Global markets:

Asian stocks were trading mostly higher on Thursday after tracking losses on Wall Street overnight.

US stocks dropped sharply on Wednesday, their biggest daily drops in more than a month, after weak economic data fueled recession worries while hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials soured investor moods further.

Cleveland Federal Reserve President Loretta Mester said Wednesday that interest rates have to keep moving higher even with recent inflation readings softening. As per reports, the policymaker said the Fed likely will have to take its benchmark interest rate above 5% in order to get inflation moving consistently down to the central bank's 2% goal. She noted that markets and the economy absorbed the half-point December rate hike without a problem.

US retail sales fell by the most in a year in December. Retail sales plummeted 1.1% last month, the biggest drop since December 2021. Data for November was revised to show sales decreasing 1% instead of 0.6% as previously reported. Retail sales rose 6% year-on-year in December.

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