Domestic equity barometers traded near the day's low in afternoon trade. The Nifty traded below the 18,250 mark. Realty, consumer durables and FMCG shares were in demand. On the other hand, banking, metal and financial services stocks corrected. At 13:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 219.1 points or 0.35% to 61,554.68. The Nifty 50 index lost 75 points or 0.41% to 18,210.40. The broader market outperformed the headline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index added 0.08% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.20%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1,763 shares rose and 1,630 shares fell. A total of 130 shares were unchanged.

Gainers & Losers:

Bajaj Auto (up 2.27%), Bharti Airtel Laboratories (up 2.17%), ITC (up 1.45%), Divi's Laboratories (up 1.27%) and Tata Consumer Products (up 1.08%) were major Nifty gainers.

Tata Motors (down 1.86%), IndusInd Bank (down 1.40%), Hindalco Industries (down 1.39%), HDFC (down 1.32%) and Adani Enterprises (down 1.28%) were top Nifty losers.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Life Insurance Corporation of India rose 1.62% after the state-run life insurer reported a standalone net profit of Rs 13,427.81 crore in Q4 FY23, steeply higher than Rs 2,371.55 crore recorded in Q4 FY22. Total premium income declined 8.34% to Rs 1,31,761.11 crore in the quarter ended 31 March 2023 as against Rs 1,43,745.92 crore posted in Q4 FY22.

Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) declined 0.78% and Mahindra CIE Automotive skid 0.90%. Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) sold its entire stake in Mahindra CIE Automotive. M&M sold 1,21,22,068 equity shares, representing 3.195% of the paid-up share capital of the company. The sale was executed on the stock exchanges on Wednesday, 24 May 2023, at a gross price of Rs. 447.65 per share.

FSN E-Commerce (Nykaa) added 1.52%. The company reported 71.8% decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 2.41 crore in Q4 FY23 as compared with Rs 8.56 crore in Q4 FY22. Revenue from operations jumped 33.7% to Rs 1,301.72 crore in Q4 FY23 from Rs 973.32 crore in corresponding quarter last year.

Oil India slipped 2.97%. On standalone basis, Oil India reported 9.7% rise in net profit to Rs 1,788.28 crore on 20.5% increase in net sales (excluding excise duty) to Rs 5,397.87 crore in Q4 FY23 over Q4 FY22.

J B Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals surged 6.47%. The company's consolidated net profit rose 3.29% to Rs 87.63 crore on 22.05% increase in net sales to Rs 762.32 crore in Q4 March 2023 over Q4 March 2022.

Global Markets:

Markets in Europe declined across the board while most of the Asian stocks traded lower on Thursday.

Data from the German statistics office on Thursday showed a downward revision to gross domestic product from zero to -0.3% for the first three months of the year, placing Europe's biggest economy in a technical recession.

The Bank of Korea held its benchmark interest rate steady at 3.5%, in line with expectations. South Korea, which was one of the first Asian banks to pause its rate hikes, has held rates for three straight meetings since January.

US stocks fell on Wednesday as investor concerns over the debt ceiling mounted and ratings agency Fitch put the United States' AAA rating on negative watch. U.S.

Fitch Ratings put the U.S.′ AAA long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating on a negative watch. The rating agency said the ongoing debt ceiling negotiations have raised the risks that the government could miss payments on some of its obligations. Fitch noted that it still expects Washington officials to arrive at a resolution before the deadline.

Federal Reserve officials were also divided on the need to raise interest rates, minutes from the central bank show. The minutes indicated that a decision to increase rates at the next meeting would ultimately hinge on upcoming data releases.