The Indian equity benchmarks erased intraday gains moved lower in noon deals on Wednesday owing to weakness in index heavyweights like HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, HDFC, Bharti Airtel, Tata Consultancy Services and IndusInd Bank. The Sensex fell as much as 332 points from day's highest level and Nifty 50 index dropped below its important psychological level of 16,100. Analysts said that investors were seen booking profits after three straight weeks of gains.
As of 12:37 pm, the Sensex was down 25 points at 53,861 and Nifty 50 index was up 3 points at 16,062.
Asian stocks gained on Wednesday, taking back some of their recent losses, while the euro hovered just above parity against the dollar ahead of a highly anticipated U.S. inflation report later in the global day.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.65 per cent, snapping two straight days of losses, after having slumped to its lowest in two years the day before.
Taiwanese stocks led the gains, with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp a regional and local index heavyweight rallying 4 per cent, after Taiwan's finance ministry said on Tuesday it would activate its stock stabilisation fund. The market fell to a 19-month low that day.
Overnight, stocks shed early gains and ended broadly lower on Wall Street Tuesday as investors brace for a big week of news on inflation and company earnings reports.
The S&P 500 fell 0.9 per cent, extending its losing streak to a third consecutive day. All of the benchmark index’s 11 company sectors closed in the red.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.6 per cent, while the Nasdaq lost 0.9 per cent.
Back home, buying was visible across the board as all the 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty Realty index's over 1 per cent gain. Nifty PSU Bank, Media, Metal, FMCG, Financial Services, Auto and Bank indices also rose between 0.5-1 per cent.
Broader markets were also witnessing buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices rose 0.8 per cent each.
Bharat Petroleum was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 2.11 per cent to Rs 315. Bajaj Finserv, Grasim, Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints, Larsen & Toubro, Bajaj Finance, State Bank of India, Tata Motors and Nestle India also rose between 0.8-1.6 per cent.
On the flipside, HCL Technologies fell nearly 2 per cent to Rs 910 after it reported a 2.4 per cent year-on-year increase in its net profit for the three months ended June 2022 at Rs 3,283 crore.
The revenue came in at Rs 23,464 crore, which was nearly 17 per cent higher than the year-ago period.
ONGC, Hero MotoCorp, Reliance Industries, Dr Reddy's Labs, HDFC Bank, Sun Pharma and Apollo Hospitals were among the notable losers.
The overall market breadth was positive as 1,865 shares were advancing while 600 were declining on the BSE.
