Indices trade with minor cuts; Sensex down 179 pts

The frontline equity benchmarks slipped into the negative terrain and traded with minor losses in mid-afternoon trade. The Nifty traded below the 17,150 mark. Realty shares declined for fourth straight day. Trading was volatile due to expiry of weekly index options on the NSE.

At 14:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 178.71 points or 0.31% to 58,036.42. The Nifty 50 index added 49 points or 0.29% to 17,102.90.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.30% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.03%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,513 shares rose and 1,953 shares fell. A total of 113 shares were unchanged.

The US Fed hiked rates by 25 basis points, which is in line with the market expectations amid turmoil in the US banking sector.

Numbers to track:

The yield on India`s 10-year benchmark federal paper declined to 7.348 from 7.354 in previous trading session.

In the foreign exchange market, the rupee edged higher against the dollar. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 82.2050, compared with its close of 82.5950 during the previous trading session.

MCX Gold futures for 5 April 2023 settlement lost 0.73% to Rs 59,185.

The US Dollar index (DXY), which tracks the greenback`s value against a basket of currencies, was down 0.18% to 102.16.

The United States 10-year bond yield declined 0.39% to 3.487.

In the commodities market, Brent crude for May 2023 settlement shed 11 cents or 0.14% to $76.58 a barrel.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Realty index fell 0.70% to 391.55. The index slipped 1.87% in four trading sessions.

Sobha Ltd (down 2.82%), Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd (down 1.61%), Godrej Properties Ltd (down 1.23%), Macrotech Developers Ltd (down 1.23%), Phoenix Mills Ltd (down 1.08%), Oberoi Realty Ltd (down 0.48%), DLF Ltd (down 0.47%) declined.

On the other hand, Prestige Estates Projects Ltd (up 1.45%), Sunteck Realty Ltd (up 0.22%) and Brigade Enterprises Ltd (up 0.09%) edged higher.

Stocks in Spotlight:

G R Infraprojects jumped 7.34% after the company emerged as lowest (L‐1) bidder for tender invited by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for a road project amounting to Rs 1,226.87 crore in Uttar Pradesh.

Patel Engineering rose 0.53% after the company`s joint venture emerged as the lowest (L1) bidder for Dibang multipurpose project worth Rs 3,637.12 crore located in Arunachal Pradesh from NHPC. Patel Engineering`s share in this order is 50%, or Rs 1,818.56 crore.

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