Stock market update: Nifty slips below 17,500, Sensex declines 100 points; FMCG stocks gain, pharma top laggards

The domestic equity market continues to trade flat with negative bias amid drop in oil prices and optimism realted to de-escalation of tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Oil prices tumbled on Thursday as the United States weighed massive reserves release to calm soaring crude prices. "India is the world`s third-largest importer and consumer of oil, and a surge in crude prices tends to push the country`s trade and current account deficit higher while also hurting the rupee and fuelling inflation," noted a Reuters report.  

At 2.15 PM, the broader Nifty50 slipped below 17,500, while the S&P BSE Sensex was trading lower by more than 100 points.  

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In the broader market, Nifty mid cap and small cap indices were sitting in the green with early 0.5% and 0.7% gains respectively.  

Sectorally, buying action was seen in FMCG, oil & gas, private bank and auto stocks, while pharma, PSU bank, healthcare and IT shares traded negative.   

Mahindra & Mahindra, JSW Steel, Britannia, Hero MotoCorp, Tata Consumer, Hindustan Unilever, ITC, Asian Paints and Axis Bank were among top gainers in a flat market on Thursday.  

Hindalco, Divis Laboratories, RIL, Sun Pharma, Wipro, Infosys, Cipla, Appolo Hospitals, Bharti Airtel, Maruti and PowerGrid were among top laggards. 

Earlier, V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said two positives in the form of sharp decline in dollar index from above 99 to 97.7 and FPIs turning buyers with a good buy figure of Rs 1357 crore along with DII buying will impart resilience to the market.  

"Reports of large crude releases from US's strategic reserves may further soften crude prices. There is more room for financials to move up," he added.  

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