After hitting fresh intraday low in afternoon trade, the key benchmark indices staged an intraday recovery in mid-afternoon trade. At 14:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 67.74 points or 0.23% at 29,451. The Nifty 50 index was down 21 points or 0.23% at 9,105.85. Domestic bourses were weighed by fall in index heavyweights Reliance Industries (RIL) and ICICI Bank. Indices dropped for the second day in running on profit booking after the recent surge saw Nifty hitting record high on Friday, 17 March 2017.
Key indices slipped into the red in morning trade after witnessing a marginally higher start to the session. The Sensex, Nifty extended losses and hit fresh almost one week low in afternoon trade.
The Sensex gained 66.31 points or 0.22% at the day's high of 29,585.05 at onset of the day's trading session. The index lost 138.60 points or 0.47% at the day's low of 29,380.14 in afternoon trade, its lowest level since 15 March 2017. The Nifty gained 20.90 points or 0.23% at the day's high of 9,147.75 at onset of the day's trading session. The index lost 39.65 points or 0.43% at the day's low of 9,087.20 in afternoon trade, its lowest level since 15 March 2017.
The BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.49%. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.27%. The fall in both these indices was higher than the Sensex's decline in percentage terms.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was weak. On the BSE, 1,713 shares declined and 998 shares rose. A total of 166 shares were unchanged.
Most FMCG stocks declined. Bajaj Corp (down 2%), GlaxoSmithkline Consumer Healthcare (down 0.44%), Colgate-Palmolive (India) (down 0.16%), Dabur India (down 0.02%), Godrej Consumer Products (down 0.71%), Hindustan Unilever (down 0.39%), Marico (down 0.19%), Nestle India (down 0.37%), Tata Global Beverages (down 0.07%) declined.
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Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Health Care (up 0.94%), Jyothy Laboratories (up 2.19%) and Britannia Industries (up 1.13%) rose.
Capital goods stocks edged lower. Bharat Electronics (down 2.58%), ABB India (down 1.09%), Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel) (down 0.5%), BEML (down 0.44%), Punj Lloyd (down 0.97%), Siemens (down 0.22%) and Thermax (down 0.34%) declined. L&T (up 0.56%) rose.
Overseas, European markets were slightly higher as investors eyed rising oil prices and intensifying talks between Greece and its euro zone creditors. Greece and its euro zone creditors remained at odds over the reforms required before new loans can be approved to Athens after an inconclusive meeting in Brussels yesterday, 20 March 2017.
Asian shares were mixed after the prospects of a less-hawkish Federal Reserve policy trajectory. The main US stock indexes closed marginally lower yesterday, 20 March 2017 for the third straight day of losses, as investors were reluctant to make big bets without major economic or corporate news.
Expectations that the US Federal Reserve will have to step up rate hikes to counter inflationary pressure from President Donald Trump's stimulus are waning after the Fed dropped no hints of an acceleration in credit tightening last week.
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