The equity markets on Thursday swung between gains and losses. After gaining over 100 points in early trade, the S&P BSE Sensex turned negative in the afternoon session. At 1:36 pm, the Sensex traded at 36,319.88, down 53.56 points or 0.15 per cent while the broader Nifty50 was at 10,954.80, with a loss of 25.65 points or 0.23 per cent. Twenty seven out of 50 Nifty stocks traded in the red. Kotak Mahindra Bank was among the top laggards on both Sensex and Nifty.
Kotak Mahindra Bank traded over 4 per cent lower on both the indices after it reported a decline of 8.8 per cent in first quarter consolidated profit after tax at Rs. 1,025 against Rs. 1,124 crore in March quarter.
Experts had already expected Dalal Street to remain volatile through the day. “Uncertainty in trade would be observed today as well because a no-confidence motion against the Narendra Modi government was moved in the Lok Sabha. We may expect volatile market ahead of expiry because of the monsoon session, which kicked off yesterday. Momentum can be expected in real estate and NBFC sector as Piyush Goyal will hold meeting to accelerate the growth of the real estate sector,” Dyaneshwar Padwal, AVP, Technical Analysis, KIFS TradeCapital, told NDTV earlier.
According to provisional data from the NSE, on Wednesday, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought net equities of Rs. 95.68 crore and domestic institutional investors purchased net shares worth Rs. 111.01 crore. Sensex had last closed 146 points lower at 36,373 and the Nifty50 at 10,980.
In global markets, Asian shares made early gains as upbeat Wall Street earnings supported global investor sentiment, although trade war jitters pushed China’s offshore yuan to a fresh one-year low. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.53 per cent, while Japan’s Nikkei and the Australian benchmark advanced 0.42 per cent and 0.38 per cent, respectively, according to a report by news agency Reuters.
In overnight trade on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.32 per cent and the S&P 500 gained 0.22 per cent to hit a more than five-month high, while the Nasdaq Composite declined marginally by 0.01 per cent. (With Reuters inputs)
