Sensex, Nifty pare gains; auto shares slide

The key equity indices reversed all gains and traded with minor losses in early afternoon trade. The Nifty slipped below the 22,450 mark. Auto shares declined after advancing in the past trading session. Trading was volatile due to the weekly Nifty50 F&O series expiry today.

At 12:29 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, shed 53.46 points or 0.07% to 73,976.30. The Nifty 50 index fell 33.45 points or 0.15% to 22,437.05.

The broader market underperformed the benchmark indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index shed 0.25% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index declined 0.31%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,870 shares rose and 2,098 shares fell. A total of 160 shares were unchanged.

Economy:

Indias retail inflation eased to a seven-month low of 3.61% in February 2025, down from 4.31% in January, as food price pressures softened, according to government data released on Wednesday. This brings inflation below the Reserve Bank of Indias (RBI) medium-term target of 4% for the first time since August 2024.

Meanwhile, Indias industrial output growth picked up to 5% year-on-year in January 2025, compared to 3.2% in December 2024.

Derivatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, fell 2.39% to 13.37. The Nifty 27 March 2025 futures were trading at 22,485.05, at a premium of 48 points as compared with the spot at 22,437.05.

The Nifty option chain for the 27 March 2025 expiry showed a maximum call OI of 61.6 lakh contracts at the 23,000 strike price. Maximum put OI of 81.1 lakh contracts was seen at 22,000 strike price.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Auto index shed 0.85% to 20,607.70. The index rose 0.49% in the past trading sessions.

Bharat Forge (down 3.88%), Samvardhana Motherson International (down 2.03%), Tata Motors (down 1.84%), MRF (down 1.21%), Bosch (down 1.21%), Hero MotoCorp (down 1.2%), Mahindra & Mahindra (down 1.18%), Exide Industries (down 0.94%), Apollo Tyres (down 0.91%) and Balkrishna Industries (down 0.76%) declined.

Stocks in Spotlight:

BEML rallied 2.64% after the company announced it has signed two memorandums of understanding (MoUs) to expand its presence in the rail and dredging sectors.

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) rose 0.69%. The company announced that its joint venture secured a 'large' order to build a desalination plant in Saudi Arabia.

Polycab India rose 0.49%. The company said that it has executed an agreement with Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) as the project implementation agency (PIA) for the Amended BharatNet Program.

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