Sensex, Nifty Down Firmly In Negative Territory

(RTTNews) - The Indian market is down firmly in negative territory Wednesday morning, with several stocks from across various sectors drifting lower on selling pressure.

The mood is a bit bearish following the overnight weak close on Wall Street where stocks tumbled on concerns over the crisis in the banking sector.

Investors, reacting to a slew of earnings announcements from Indian companies, are also looking ahead to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement, due later in the day.

The Fed is widely expected to raise interest rates by 25 basis points. The accompanying statement and Fed Chair Jerome Powell's post meeting press meet are eyed for clues on the central bank's future interest rate moves.

The benchmark BSE Sensex is down 202.55 points or 0.33% at 61,152.16, recovering from a low of 61,024.44.

The broader Nifty50 index of the National Stock Exchange, which fell to 18,050.60, is currently at 18,085.65, down 62 points or 0.34% from the previous close.

Larsen & Toubro, Axis Bank and Bajaj Finance are down 1 to 1.3%. Tata Consultancy Services is down nearly 1%.

Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Tech Mahindra, ICICI Bank and Reliance Industries are lower by 0.7 to 0.9%.

Tata Steel is down with a loss of about 0.7%. The steelmaker reported consolidated net profit of Rs 1,705 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2023, down 82% from consolidated net profit of Rs 9,756 crore the company posted in the year-ago quarter.

Hindalco, ONGC, Bajaj Auto, JSW Steel, UPL, HDFC Life and Grasim Industries are also weak.

Asian Paints, Hind Unilever, Ultratech Cement and ITC are gaining 0.8 to 1.2%.

Coal India, Divi's Laboratories, NTPC, Tata Consumer Products and Britannia Industries are also up in positive territory.

Punjab & Sind Bank's net profit for the fourth-quarter came in at Rs 457 crore, up 32% from Rs 346 crore a year ago. Despite strong results, the bank stock is down 4.6%.

Ambuja Cements is gaining 1.5% after reporting standalone net profit of Rs 502 crore, up marginally from the year-ago quarter.

Data from Markit Economics showed India's services sector activity expanded at the fastest pace in nearly 13 years in April.

The S&P Global India services Purchasing Managers' Index jumped to 62.0 last month from 57.8 in March, its highest since June 2010 and well above all forecasts in a Reuters poll which had predicted a fall to 57.0.