Mumbai: The key Indian equity indices traded on a flat-to-negative note on Wednesday afternoon tracking weakness in the global markets coupled with selling pressure on oil and gas, banking and capital goods stocks.
However, healthy buying in IT and Teck (technology, media and entertainment) stocks restricted further losses on the indices.
At 1.08 p.m. the wider Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange traded at 10,599.85 points, down 14.50 points or 0.14 per cent from the previous close of 10,614.35 points.
The barometer 30-scrip Sensitive index (Sensex) of the BSE, which opened at 34,593.17 points, traded at 34,589.48 points (1.08 p.m.) — down 27.16 points or 0.08 per cent — from its previous session’s close of 34,616.64 points.
So far, the Sensex has touched a high of 34,614.61 points and a low of 34,501.89 points during the day.
The BSE market breadth was largely bearish with 1,447 declines and 989 advances so far.
“Sensex and Nifty opened lower, following a selloff in the US markets, Asian indices were also in red,” said Dhruv Desai, Director and Chief Operating Officer, Tradebulls.
He added: “Dow Jones fell more than 400 points. US stocks fell on Tuesday, giving up earlier gains, as investors worried about rising interest rates.”
On Wednesday, the major gainers on the BSE so far were Bharti Airtel, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Mahindra and Mahindra and Infosys while Tata Steel, ONGC, Larsen and Toubro, Dr Reddy’s Lab and Asian Paints were among the major losers.
On NSE, the top gainers were Bharti Airtel, Wipro and TCS. The major losers were GAIL, CIPLA and Vedanta.
IANS