Mumbai, India (BBN) – The Sensex and Nifty were trading marginally lower ahead of a likely rate hike by the US Federal Reserve at its Federal Open Market Committee meeting concluding Wednesday.
At 10:55am, the 30-share BSE index Sensex was down 46.67 points or 0.17 per cent at 26,651.15 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was down 22.4 points or 0.27 per cent at 8,199.40.
A report by SMC Global said: “Asian markets are mostly positive tracking the record highs in US markets. US markets scaled fresh record highs led by a surge in technology and energy stocks ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s expected interest rate hike and potential changes in its inflation and growth outlook. US import prices fell by 0.3 per cent in November after climbing by a revised 0.4 per cent in October. Import prices were expected to drop by 0.4 per cent compared to the 0.5 per cent increase originally reported for the previous month.”
All the broader and sectoral indices were trading flat. Volatility was up 1.69 per cent with the volatility index India Vix quoting at 16.1925.
Among BSE sectoral indices, metal index was down 0.8 per cent, capital goods 0.5 per cent, PSU 0.5 per cent and auto 0.41 per cent. On the other hand, realty index gained the most by 1.51 per cent, consumer durables 0.44 per cent, oil & gas 0.32 per cent and IT 0.28 per cent.
Buying acvitity was witnessed in select counters on positive economic data as retail inflation fell to a two—year low of 3.63 per cent in November following the Centre’s demonetisation drive that led to lower consumer spending on various food items including vegetables.
This is the lowest level since November 2014 when the retail inflation was recorded at 3.23 per cent.
Top five Sensex gainers were Reliance (+1.81%), Axis Bank (+1.53%), Asian Paints (+0.84%), Wipro (+0.79%) and NTPC (+0.67%), while the major losers were Coal India (-3.27%), HDFC (-1.16%), Cipla (-1.07%), L&T (-1.01%) and Adani Ports (-1.00%).
BBN/SS/AD