The Indian equity benchmarks edged lower on Wednesday dragged by losses in Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints, Hindustan Larsen & Toubro and Kotak Mahindra Bank amid weak global cues. The Sensex fell as much as 271 points and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday low of 17,499.
As of 9:36 am, the Sensex was down 89 points at 58,944 and Nifty 50 index declined 23 points to 17,555.
Most of the Asian markets were trading lower with Japan's Nikkei down 0.38 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng down 0.83 per cent and Singapore's Straits Times down 0.33 per cent.
Stocks drifted to modest losses in a quiet Tuesday on Wall Street, as steadying Treasury yields helped calm the market following its worst tumble in months.
The S&P 500 dipped 9.26 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 4,128.73 after flipping between small gains and losses through the day. The edge lower follows up on Monday’s sharp 2.1 per cent drop, which came on the heels of the first losing week for the index in the last five.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 154.02, or 0.5 per cent, to 32,909.59, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.27, or less than 0.1 per cent, to 12381.30. Stocks of smaller companies held up better than the rest of the market, and the Russell 2000 index ticked up by 0.2 per cent.
Back home, ten of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the Nifty IT index's 0.5 per cent decline. Nifty Auto, FMCG, Metal, Pharma and Consumer Durable indices also declined between 0.2-0.5 per cent.
On the other hand, Media, Realty, Private Bank and Bank stocks were witnessing buying interest.
Mid- and small-cap shares were witnessing a mild buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.11 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.62 per cent.
Among the individual shares, NDTV rose by its maximum daily limit of 5 per cent to hit fresh 52-week high of Rs 384.50 after Adani Group entities made an open offer to acquire 26 per cent stake in the company.
Trading volumes on the counter surged as 80,000 shares changed hands on the BSE compared with an average of 75,000 shares traded daily in the past two weeks.
Divi's Labs was top Nifty loser, the stock fell 1.31 per cent to Rs 3,486. Nestle India, Bharat Petroleum, Asian Paints, Tata Steel, Tata Consultancy Services, Adani Ports, Bharti Airtel, Tata Consumer Products and Titan also fell between 0.65-1 per cent.
On the flipside, ONGC, IndusInd Bank, Apollo Hospitals, NTPC, HDFC Life, Coal India, ICICI Bank, HCL Technologies and Hindalco were among the gainers.
The overall market breadth was positive as 1,994 shares were advancing while 928 were declining on the BSE.
