The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes came off intraday highs as banking, financial services, FMCG and media shares came under selling pressure. However, the downside was capped as buying in IT shares led by Infosys were witnessing buying interest. Earlier in the day, Sensex rose over 300 points and Nifty rose 10,700. Losses in ITC, HDFC, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank were offset with gains in Infosys, Mahindra & Mahindra and TCS.
As of 1:12 pm, the Sensex was up 141 points at 36,193 and Nifty advanced 37 points to 10,655.
Six of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the Nifty Media index’s 2 per cent decline. Nifty Bank, FMCG, PSU Bank and Private Bank indexes were also trading lower.
On the other hand, Nifty IT index was top gainer, up 2 per cent.
Mid- and small-cap shares were witnessing selling pressure as Nifty Midcap 100 index declined 0.25 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index fell 0.84 per cent.
Infosys shares soared 15 per cent to a fresh record high on Thursday, a day after large deal wins and tighter costs helped the country’s second largest IT firm post better-than-expected profit and reinstate its full-year outlook. The Bengaluru-based software services provider reported a 11.5 per cent jump in profit in a quarter that was expected to be disruptive for the country’s nearly $200-billion IT industry as the coronavirus outbreak crimped client spending.
Infosys shares were on track for their best day in more than seven years on Thursday.
Mahindra & Mahindra, Cipla, JSW Steel, Bharat Petroleum, Hero MotoCorp, Dr Reddy’s Labs, Sun Pharma and TCS were also among the gainers.
On the flipside, Bharti Infratel was top loser, down 6 per cent at Rs 192. Tech Mahindra, Zee Entertainment, ITC, Tata Motors, Wipro, Coal India, NTPC, Indian Oil, Grasim Industries, UPL, HDFC and Axis Bank were also among the losers.
The overall market breadth was negative as 1,652 shares were declining while 802 were advancing on the BSE.
