Indices end choppy day in the red; Sensex dips 31 pts; banks, metals bleed

Stock market updates: Indices extended their decline into third day on Tuesday as investors fretted over rising cases of Covid-19 cases in the country and amid new localised restrictions. Bulls put brakes on their march after Gujarat decided to impose night curfew in Surat, Rajkot, Ahmedabad, and Vadodara for the next fortnight owing to rising cases of Covid-19. On Monday, Maharashtra announced that hotels, restaurants, cinemas, and multiplexes shall be permitted to operate at only 50 per cent capacity, shopping malls will implement stringent Covid protocols, and all social, religious, political and cultural gatherings have been banned to stem the spread of infection. 

Given this, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex ended 31 points, or 0.06 per cent, lower at 50,364 levels. On the NSE, the Nifty50 closed at 14,910 levels, down 19 points or 0.13 per cent. 

The number of gainers and losers on both Sensex and Nifty were nearly equally divided with 14 of the 30 constituents on the Sensex and 20 of the 50 on the Nifty ending the day in the green. Asian Paints, Dr Reddy's Labs, HUL, HCL Tech, ITC, Bharti Airtel, and UltraTech Cement were the top index gainers today while Cipla, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, SBI, BPCL, Shreeram Cement, Axis and Divis Labs ended the day in the red.

Broader markets, meanwhile, remained better placed. The S&P BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices each ended around 0.4 per cent higher. MphasiS, Hindustan Aeronautics, Adani Power, Shriram Transport Finance, and AU Small Finance Bank from the midcap index, and Intellect Design Arena, Ashiana Housing, Astron Paper Board Mills, and Zensar Technologies from the smallcap index ended as the top performing stocks.

Among key sectoral indices, the Nifty Bank, Private Bank, PSU Bank, and Metal indices skid up to 1.3 per cent on the NSE. On the upside, the Nifty IT and FMCG indices closed 1 per cent higher each.

Global markets

Asian stocks rose on Tuesday, tracking Wall Street’s advance to record highs, as investors anticipated the US Federal Reserve and other central banks meeting this week will keep policies accommodative to help drive a post-pandemic global economic recovery.

An index of Asia-Pacific share markets excluding Japan strengthened 0.69%, led by a 1.2% jump in Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index. Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.5% to just below the closely watched 30,000 mark, while the broader Topix added 0.65%.

China’s blue chip CSI 300 index climbed 0.55%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.46%.      

In Europe, the pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.5%, inching closer to a record peak set last year. 

(With inputs from Reuters)