Market Wrap, Jan 15: Sensex slips 80 points, Nifty below 12,350

Market participants booked profit on Wednesday ahead of weekly expiry on Thursday. Indian equities tracked global peers that were trading in the red after a United States official said that tariff on China would continue till the US Presidential elections were over. Markets, however, staged a smart recovery in the fag end of the session and pared most of its losses.

Led by cuts in the financial and banking counters, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex closed 80 points lower at 41,873 level while the broader Nifty50 settled at 12,343, down 19 points.

On the contrary, broader markets continued to trade in the positive territory for the seventh straight session. The S&P BSE mid-cap index was up 0.66 per cent, while the S&P BSE small-cap index surged 1.04 per cent.

In another major development, the total market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies touched a new high of Rs 159.70 trillion today, after strong buying in IT, financials, telecom, cement and other sectors.

IT company L&T Infotech today reported a marginal rise in its net profit at Rs 376.7 crore for Q3 while the consolidated income for the quarter increased to Rs 2,875.3 crore. The stock ended the day 2.38 per cent higher at Rs 1,922.90 level.

Wipro, Mindtree, and IndusInd Bank also reacted to the December quarter results declared yesterday. Wipro ended the session 3.5 per cent lower at Rs 248.15 after sliding almost 5 per cent intra-day. IndusInd Bank fell over 6 per cent during the session and closed over 5 per cent lower at Rs 1400.60.

Here's how the global markets performed today:

Stocks slipped in Asian trade on Wednesday as investors awaited the signing of an initial US-China trade deal, with sentiment somewhat dented by comments from the US Treasury Secretary that tariffs would remain in place for now.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.48 per cent, retreating from its 19-month peak marked on Tuesday, and Japan’s benchmark Nikkei shed 0.5 per cent, off its four-week high hit the previous day.

South Korea’s KOSPI dropped 0.54 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.65 per cent and 0.74 per cent, respectively, while Australian stocks bucked the trend to climb 0.47 per cent on the back of stronger mining shares.