FIRST TRADE: Indices open in the red, Nifty tests 18,300; IT, financial counters fall

The domestic equity market started on a negative note on May 24, Wednesday. At the time of writing this report, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading 144 points lower at 61,838.05 while the NSE's Nifty was hovering around 18,300, down 47 points. Tier-1 IT and banks' counters were under pressure. HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Reliance and Infosys were the top contributors to the Sensex's decline while Kotak Mahindra Bank and Power Grid gave the much-needed support. The broad market indices were performing better than the benchmark indices. For instance, the S&P BSE MidCap was quoting at 26,482.12 levels, up 0.11 per cent while the S&P BSE SmallCap index was up 0.14 per cent at 29,946.20 points.

Yesterday, the domestic markets ended marginally higher tracking gains in real estate and auto stocks, which were partly offset by losses in metal stocks amid signs of increasing Sino-US tensions along with hawkish comments by Fed officials. US markets ended lower amid US debt ceiling concerns and negative global cues.

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Among individual stocks, Spicejet soared over 7 per cent while Biocon was up over 3 per cent. The biotech company on May 23 reported a 31 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 313 crore for the fourth quarter of the financial year 2022-2023, against Rs 239 crore logged in the March 2022 quarter. Revenue from operations climbed 56.7 per cent to Rs 3,773.9 crore as against Rs 2,409 crore last fiscal. NMDC was trading with half a per cent gains, a day after the company reported its March quarter numbers.