The Indian equity benchmarks edged lower on Thursday ahead of weekly expiry of index futures and option contracts due later in the day dragged by losses index heavyweights like Infosys, Reliance Industries, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Tata Consultancy Services, Asian Paints and HCL Technologies. However, the losses were capped on the back of buying interest in Bajaj Finance, Power Grid, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and Bharti Airtel.
As of 9:24 am, the Sensex was 275 points at 59,824 and Nifty 50 index declined 49 points to 17,890.
Asian share markets broke a five-day slide to edge higher on Thursday, shrugging off drops in Europe and on Wall Street overnight as China underscored its diverging monetary and economic picture by cutting benchmark mortgage rates, news agency Reuters reported.
Back home, nine of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty Metal index's 0.8 per cent gain. Media, FMCG, PSU Bank, Realty, and Banking shares were also witnessing buying interest.
On the other hand, information technology, oil & gas and consumer durable shares were witnessing selling pressure.
Mid- and small-cap shares were outperforming their larger peers as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.2 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.7 per cent.
Tata Consumer Products was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose nearly 3 per cent to Rs 738. Power Grid, Coal India, Hero MotoCorp, UltraTech Cement, Grasim Industries, Eicher Motors, Bharti Airtel, Axis Bank, Tata Steel and Britannia Industries also rose between 0.6-1 per cent.
On the flipside, Infosys, tech Mahindra, Reliance Industries, Asian Paints, Wipro, TCS, ONGC, HDFC, Mahindra & Mahindra, SBI Life, Cipla and HCL Technologies were among the losers.
The overall market breadth was positive as 1,896 shares were advancing while 1,024 were declining on the BSE.
