The Indian equities market opened on a tepid note on Friday after three consecutive days of smart gains. The benchmark Sensex fell more than 200 points while Nifty 50 dropped 0.33 per cent on profit-booking in banking, telecom, and auto stocks.
The 30-stock S&P BSE Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange opened in the negative at 58,696.71 points and slumped to a low of 58,495.12 points in the early trade.
At around 11.30 am, the Sensex was trading at 58,560.96 points, 0.42 per cent or 246.17 points lower than the previous day’s close of 58,807.13 points. The benchmark index touched a high of 58,850.24 points in the intra-day. The index is trading in the red after three successive days of gains.
Share Market LIVE: Equity indices trade flat during opening session (newsd.in)
The broader Nifty 50 of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was trading 0.37 per cent lower at 17,451.35 points. The Nifty opened in the red at 17,476.05 points and touched a low of 17,433.45 points and a high of 17,534.35 points in the intra-day. Only eight of the 30 Sensex stocks were trading in the positive. Major gainers included: Asian Paints 3.03 per cent higher at Rs. 3275; Mahindra & Mahindra 1.40 per cent higher at Rs. 863; Sun Pharma 1.38 per cent higher at Rs. 769.90; TCS 0.28 per cent higher at Rs. 3613.60 and Bajaj Auto 0.24 per cent higher at Rs. 3346.85.
There was a selling pressure in banking and financial stocks. HDFC fell 1.18 per cent to Rs. 2808.45; Axis Bank was down 0.97 per cent to Rs. 687.35; Bajaj Finserv was down 1.16 per cent to Rs. 17392.80; State Bank of India was down 0.31 per cent to Rs. 487.10. Other major losers included Titan 2.84 per cent down at Rs. 2306.65; Tech Mahindra 1.01 per cent down at Rs. 1595; Hindustan Unilever 0.74 per cent down at Rs. 2323.10.
