The key equity benchmarks traded with decent losses in mid-morning trade as investors awaited the RBI's monetary policy decision later in the week amid ongoing trade war concerns. The Nifty traded below the 23,600 level. Auto shares extended losses for the two consecutive trading sessions. Trading was volatile due to the weekly Nifty 50 F&O series expiry today.
At 14:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, slipped 379 points or 0.48% to 77,889.92. The Nifty 50 index lost 125.85 points or 0.53% to 23,570.50.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index shed 0.74% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index fell 0.03%.
The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,850 shares rose and 1,957 shares fell. A total of 152 shares were unchanged.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty Auto index shed 0.99% to 23,298.35. The index fell 0.93% in the two consecutive trading sessions.
Balkrishna Industries (down 2.37%), Exide Industries (down 1.86%), Bharat Forge (down 1.61%), Mahindra & Mahindra (down 1.01%), MRF (down 1.01%), Eicher Motors (down 1%), Ashok Leyland (down 1%), Hero MotoCorp (down 0.86%), Bosch (down 0.73%) and Bajaj Auto (down 0.7%) declined.
Numbers to Track:
The yield on India's 10-year benchmark federal paper was up 1.56% to 6.768 as compared with the previous close of 6.772.
In the foreign exchange market, the rupee edged lower against the dollar. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 87.5775, compared with its close of 87.4350 during the previous trading session.
The US Dollar index (DXY), which tracks the greenback's value against a basket of currencies, was rose 0.33% to 107.99.
The United States 10-year bond yield rose 0.59% to 4.446.
In the commodities market, Brent crude for April 2025 settlement rose 31 cents or 0.42% to $74.92 a barrel.
Stocks in Spotlight:
UNO Minda shed 0.51%. The company has reported 24% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 254.37 crore on a 18.8% increase in revenue from operations to Rs 4,183.99 crore in Q3 FY25 as compared with Q3 FY24.
Bharat Dynamics slipped 0.92%. The company reported 16.7% fall in net profit to Rs 122.53 crore on a 12.2% decline in net sales to Rs 535.46 crore in Q3 FY25 as compared with Q3 FY24.
Sagility India hit an upper circuit of 5% after the company’s consolidated net profit surged 207.2% to Rs 216.91 crore in Q3 FY25 as compared with Rs 70.60 crore in Q3 FY24. Revenue from operations jumped 15.3% YoY to Rs 1,453.07 crore in Q3 FY25.