Sensex falls 164 pts; Vodafone Idea tumbles 9%, Happiest Minds soars 17%

India's domestic factory orders and production contracted to an 11-month low in June as measures to contain the coronavirus put manufacturing into "reverse gear". The IHS Markit India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) slipped to 48.1 in June from 50.8 in May and 55.5 in April. This was, for the first time since July 2020, below the critical no-change mark of 50. READ MORE

Given this, the frontline BSE barometer gave up 164 points, or 0.31 per cent, to end at 52,318 levels. The broader Nifty50, on the other hand, settled at 15,680 levels, down 42 points or 0.26 per cent. In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap index dipped 0.19 per cent. However, the BSE SmallCap index added 0.32 per cent.

That said, despite an overall slowed down momentum in the markets, investors rewarded auto stocks as the June sales figures showed healthy year-on-year recovery. The Nifty Auto index ended 0.8 per cent higher, the top sectoral gainer on the NSE, with Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki, and TVS Motor up between 0.5 per cent and 2 per cent. Meanwhile, Balkrishna Industries, Tube Investments of India and MRF, from the auto ancillary space, gained between 1 per cent and 2 per cent.

Global markets

European shares rose on Thursday with the pan-European STOXX 600 and Germany's DAX was up 0.6 per cent each while France's CAC40 and the UK's FTSE 100 advanced 0.7 per cent and 0.9 per cent, respectively.

Earlier in Asia, most major equity markets posted modest declines.

(With inputs from Reuters)