The S&P BSE Sensex was down 67.80 points at 72,694.09 at 9.44 am, while the NSE Nifty50 fell 10.40 points to 21,987.30.
In Short
- Stock market indices opened lower on Thursday
- Nifty Bank, Financial Services and IT traded lower
- Paytm shares fell nearly 3% ahead of RBI deadline for PPBL
Benchmark stock market indices opened marginally lower on Thursday and continued their sluggish run.
The S&P BSE Sensex was down 67.80 points at 72,694.09 at 9.44 am, while the NSE Nifty50 fell 10.40 points to 21,987.30. The domestic-focused broader market indices rose, but remain under pressure amid sustained profit booking.
Among sectoral indices, heavyweights Nifty Bank and Nifty Financial Services traded 0.5 per cent lower, while Nifty IT fell 0.3 per cent. Nifty Realty fell over 1 per cent and was the top loser among sectoral indices.
On the other hand, Nifty Oil & Gas and Nifty Media gained over 1.2 per cent.
The top five gainers on the Nifty50 were Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports, Hero MotoCorp, M&M and Hindalco. Meanwhile, the top drags on the 50-share index were JSW Steel, Tata Steel, LTIM, TCS and Bajaj Finance.
It is worth noting that shares of digital payments firm Paytm fell nearly 3 per cent in early trade ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s March 15 deadline for its associate, Paytm Payments Bank, to wind down some key operations.
Deven Mehata, research analyst at Choice Broking, said, “The market had a severe downturn yesterday, as Nifty closed almost at its daily low below 22,000 levels following an abrupt sell-off from higher levels.”
“It is highly recommended that traders trade with extreme caution and strictly adhere to stop-loss levels. If Nifty continues to fall toward the strong support level of 21,800, investors might view this as a good time to make new medium- to long-term investments,” he added.
This article was published on India Today.
