Indices trim losses; Nifty above 18,100; oil & gas stocks advance

The key equity benchmarks pared some of the losses and traded with minor cuts in mid-morning trade. The Nifty traded above the 18,100 level. Barring the Nifty Oil & Gas index, all the other sectoral indices on the NSE were in the red. Trading was expected to be volatile due to expiry of weekly index options on the NSE.

At 11:27 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 149.69 points or 0.25% to 60,896.05. The Nifty 50 index lost 46.60 points or 0.26% to 18,118.75.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.07% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index slipped 0.03%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,561 shares rose, and 1,692 shares fell. A total of 175 shares were unchanged.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Oil & Gas index gained 0.37% to 8,577.25. The index declined 0.07% in the past trading session.

Adani Total Gas (up 1.09%), Indian Oil Corporation (up 0.61%), Oil & Natural Gas Corpn (up 0.54%), Indraprastha Gas (up 0.37%), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (up 0.36%) and Gujarat Gas (up 0.26%) advanced.

On the other hand, Aegis Logistics (down 1.4%), Gujarat State Petronet (down 0.78%) and Oil India (down 0.51%) edged lower.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Persistent Systems advanced 4.69% after the company reported 8.2% rise in net profit to Rs 237.95 crore on a 5.9% increase in revenue to Rs 2,169.37 crore in Q3 FY23 over Q2 FY23.

Aurobindo Pharma rose 0.15%. The drug maker on Wednesday announced that the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) inspected its wholly owned subsidiary, APL Health Care's Unit I & III, at Jadcherla in Telangana, during 9 January to 18 January 2023.

Mahindra Lifespace Developers jumped 7.75% after the company announced its foray into society redevelopment in Mumbai. The company and the two societies will execute definitive documents upon completion of due diligence. The project will offer Mahindra Lifespaces a revenue potential of around Rs 500 crore.

Global markets:

Asian stocks traded 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.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News