Stocks gyrated in a small range with negative bias in early afternoon trade. At 12:15 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 63.69 points or 0.18% at 35,625.91. The Nifty 50 index was down 17.60 points or 0.16% at 10,804.25. Cement stocks gained. Telecom stocks saw mixed trend.
Domestic stocks edged lower in early trade on negative Asian stocks. Stocks turned volatile in morning trade as the key benchmark indices once again dipped in negative zone after briefly turning positive. Volatility continued as the key benchmark indices extended fall and hit intraday low in mid-morning trade.
The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.1%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was off 0.11%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On the BSE, 1008 shares rose and 1276 shares fell. A total of 130 shares were unchanged.
Cement stocks gained. Ambuja Cements (up 1.56%), ACC (up 1.92%), UltraTech Cement (up 1.57%) and Shree Cement (up 0.8%) edged higher.
Grasim Industries was off 0.38%. Grasim has exposure to the cement sector through its holding in UltraTech Cement.
Telecom stocks saw mixed trend. Idea Cellular (down 5.86%) and MTNL (down 2.81%) rose. Bharti Airtel (up 0.47%), Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (up 2.77%) and Reliance Communications (up 1.02%) rose.
Shares of Bharti Infratel rose 1.21%. Bharti Infratel is a provider of tower and related infrastructure and is a unit of Bharti Airtel.
Overseas, Asian stocks fell as investors assessed prospects for continuing trade tensions between US and China. China's central bank will cut the amount of cash some lenders must hold as reserves, unlocking about 700 billion yuan ($108 billion) of liquidity, as it seeks to control leverage and support smaller companies. The required reserve ratio for some banks will drop by 0.5 percentage point, effective 5 July 2018, the People's Bank of China said. That's the day before the US and China are scheduled to impose tariffs on each other.
US stocks climbed on Friday, 22 June 2018 as investors tried to shake off jitters concerning trade tensions between the US and China, with energy shares rising. OPEC and its allied oil producers including Russia met on June 22 in Vienna for a two-day meeting. Saudi Arabia said the group had reportedly agreed on a nominal output rise of around 1 million barrels per day.
On the US economic data front, the US manufacturing PMI registered at 54.6 in June, down from 56.4 in May, while services PMI stood at 56.5, slightly down from 56.8 in May, according to statistics from data provider Markit on Friday.
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