Face of Nation : Domestic stock markets curbed some of the losses in the first hour of trade on Tuesday, extending recent losses to a third session in a row. The S&P BSE Sensex index fell as much as 176.92 points to 38,946.04 in early trade, and the NSE Nifty benchmark moved to 11,651.00, down 48.65 points from the previous close. The benchmark indexes gained some ground, with the Sensex regaining the 39,000 mark and the Nifty touching 11,700 amid volatile trade.
At 9:43 am, the Sensex traded 61.31 points – or 0.16 per cent – lower at 39,061.65, while the Nifty was down 27.70 points – or 0.24 per cent – at 11,671.95.
Market breadth favoured declines, with 736 stocks trading with gains on the BSE and 731 struggling with losses. On the NSE, 749 stocks advanced while 819 declined in morning deals.
Top percentage laggards on the 50-scrip index at the time were Bharti Infratel, UPL, Zee Entertainment, HCL Tech, Sun Pharma, Grasim and Tata Steel, trading between 0.85 per cent and 2.02 per cent lower.
HDFC Bank, TCS and Infosys weighed the most on Sensex.
On the other hand, top Nifty gainers were Vedanta, Bharat Petroleum, JSW Steel, Power Grid and Indiabulls Housing Finance, trading with advances of between 0.90 per cent and 1.69 per cent.
Equities in other Asian markets traded on a lacklustre note as investors awaited to see if anything will come of China-US trade talks later this week.
US President Donald Trump is slated to meet one-on-one with at least eight world leaders at the G20 summit in Osaka, including China’s President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Early trade was very light with MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan up a minor 0.09 per cent. Japan’s Nikkei was all but flat, as was the South Korean market
E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 edged up 0.08 per cent. Overnight in the US, the Dow Jones industrial average ended up 0.03 per cent on Monday, whereas the S&P 500 and Nasdaq lost 0.17 per cent and 0.32 per cent respectively.
The Sensex and Nifty had ended 0.18 per cent and 0.21 per cent lower on Monday.
