Benchmarks hit day's low; Nifty slips below 15,000

Key equity indices further extended losses and hit the day's low in mid-afternoon trade. Auto shares tumbled. The Nifty slipped below the 15,000 mark.

At 14:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 599.32 points or 1.17% to 50,680.19. The Nifty 50 index lost 181.4 points or 1.20% at 14,993.40.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index lost 0.61% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index slipped 0.23%.

Sellers outnumbered buyers. On the BSE, 1222 shares rose and 1729 shares fell. A total of 176 shares were unchanged.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Auto index shed 1.48% to currently trade at 10,403. The index gained 0.91% in the previous session.

Maruti Suzuki (down 2.44%), Bajaj Auto (down 2.42%), Hero MotoCorp (down 1.86%), TVS Motor Company (down 1.59%) and Eicher Motors (down 1.53%), Tata Motors (down 1.18%), Mahindra & Mahindra (down 1.15%), Ashok Leyland (down 1.29%) and Bharat Forge (down 0.76%) declined.

Economy:

The Department of Financial Services (DFS), under the finance ministry, has reportedly sent a memorandum to the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) asking the regulator to withdraw a rule treating AT1 bonds (perpetuals) as having 100-year maturity. The memorandum was sent on Thursday, reports suggested. A circular on the AT1 bonds was issued by Sebi on 10 March and the rule was to take effect from 1 April.

Numbers to Track:

In the commodities market, Brent crude for May 2021 settlement shed 9 cents to $69.54 a barrel. The contract gained 2.55% or or $1.73 to settle at $69.63 a barrel in the previous session.

The yield on 10-year benchmark federal paper fell to 6.229% as compared to its previous close of 6.247%.

In the foreign exchange market, the partially convertible rupee fell to 72.8025, compared with its previous closing of 72.9150.

MCX Gold futures for 5 April 2021 settlement shed 0.76% to Rs 44,540.

The US Dollar index (DXY), which tracks the greenback's value against a basket of currencies, rose 0.42% to 91.81.

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