FIRST TRADE: Indices open in red; Sensex slips over 150 pts, Nifty below 19,600
Stock market today: Indian equity benchmarks Nifty and Sensex suffered minor losses in early deals on Monday. Selling pressure in financial and FMCG shares weighed on the indices though gains in IT stocks lent some support.
Stock market today: Indian equity benchmarks began Monday's session in the red, with the headline Nifty gauge briefly trading below the 19,600 mark. Selling pressure in financial and FMCG shares weighed on the indices though gains in IT stocks lent some support.
Both main indices fell as much as 0.2 per cent within the first few minutes of trade. The Sensex lost 161.3 points to 65,998.9 at the weakest level of the day so far and the Nifty slipped to as low as 19,597.6, down 48.5 points from its previous close.
At 9:30 am, the Sensex was down 12.9 points at 66,147.3 and the Nifty down six points at 19,640.1, having recovered much of the day's losses amid choppy trade. As many as 18 stocks in the 50-scrip Nifty basket traded below the flatline. Apollo Hospitals, HDFC Life, Britannia, Asian Paints and Bharti Airtel were the top laggards in the Nifty50 universe, trading between 0.8 per cent and 2.5 per cent lower.
On the other hand, NTPC, PowerGrid, Tata Steel, JSW Steel and Tata Motors were the top gainers, rising between 1.1 per cent and 2.8 per cent.
ITC, ICICI Bank and Bajaj Finance were the biggest drags on both headline indices.
Buzzing stocks
Siemens opened 2.25 per cent higher after the board decided to sell the business to Siemens Large Drives India Pvt ltd.
Five Star Business Finance opened nearly 9 per cent higher post results.
Gland Pharma opened over 6 per cent higher after US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) completed the GMP Inspection of the Sterile Oncology Facility, Visakhapatnam without any observation.
Nazara Tech opened over 3 per cent higher post results.
Raymond opened over 1 per cent higher after its subsidiary Raymond Realty announced the launch of its fourth project in Thane.
Piramal Enterprises opened over 5 per cent lower after the board approved the buyback of Rs 1,750 crore.
SBI Card opened over 1 per cent lower post results, and MCX also opened over 1 per cent lower post results.
Global markets
Equities in other Asian markets began the day on a positive note, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan trading 0.4 per cent higher at the last count.
Japan's Nikkei 225 was up 1.1 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.5 per cent and China's Shanghai Composite 0.6 per cent
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