Sensex Recovers Over 700 Points From Day's Low Led By Pharma, IT Shares

The Indian eqity benchmarks staged a recovery from intraday lows with the Sensex rising as much as 721points from the day's lowest level and Nifty hitting high of 17,037 after dropping to an intraday low of 16,833. The recovery in the benchmarks came on the back of buying interest in information technology and pharma stocks.

As of 11:04 am, the Sensex was up 13 points at 57,137 and Nifty 50 index declined 14 points to 16,990.

Meanwhile, other Asian markets were also trading lower as uncertainty over the economic impact of the Omicron coronavirus variant weighed on investor sentiment, news agency Reuters reported.

Japan's Nikkei lost 0.20 per cent while South Korea's Kospi fell 0.11 per cent.

Mainland Chinese shares, though, were mixed, with Shanghai's benchmark sliding 0.37 per cent but an index of blue chips edged 0.05 per cent higher.

Nine of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the Nifty Media index's nearly 1 per cent decline. Nifty Private Bank, Oil & Gas, Metal, FMCG and Bank indexes were also trading lower.

On the other hand, Nifty Pharma, IT, Healthcare, Financial Services and Auto indices were trding higher.

Mid- and small-cap shares also staged a recovery as Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading flat while Nifty Smallcap 100 index rose 0.22 per cent.

Among the individual shares, RBL Bank plunged as much as 15 per cent to hit an intraday low of Rs 147 after corporate governance issues surfaced at the bank. Vishwavir Ahuja, the bank's MD and CEO went on a medical leave following the appointment of an additional director by the RBI on the bank. The Reserve Bank of India has appointed Yogesh Dayal as an Additional Director on the Board of the Bank for a period of two years till December 23, 2023. Meanwhile, Rajeev Ahuja (existing Executive Director of the Bank) was appointed as the Interim Managing Director & CEO of the Bank.

Tech Mahindra was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 2.2 per cent to Rs 1,761. Cipla, Dr Reddy's Labs, Sun Pharma, UPL, Larsen & Toubro, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, Hero MotoCorp and Divi's Labs also rose between 0.5-1.3 per cent.

On the flipside, IndusInd Bank, Hindalco, Bajaj Finance, ONGC, Asian Paints, Tata Consumer Products, Adani Ports, Eicher Motors, Titan, Coal India and ITC were among the losers.

The overall market breadth was positive as 1,949 shares were advancing while 1,345 shares were declining on the BSE.