Nifty hovers below 17,050; oil & gas stocks slide

The domestic equity benchmarks continued to trade with tiny losses in mid-morning trade. The Nifty hovered below the 17,050 level. IT, healthcare and pharma shares advanced while metal, media and oil & gas stocks declined.

At 11:28 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 37.29 points or 0.06% to 57,887.99. The Nifty 50 index lost 33.50 points or 0.20% to 17,043.40.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.41% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index slipped 0.50%.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 1,226 shares rose and 2,022 shares fell. A total of 128 shares were unchanged.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Oil & Gas index lost 0.66% to 7,122.35. The index slipped 0.79% in two trading sessions.

Aegis Logistics (down 2.11%), Castrol India (down 1.54%), Petronet LNG (down 1.37%), Gujarat State Petronet (down 1.31%), Oil India (down 1.15%), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (down 1.05%), Reliance Industries (down 0.9%), Oil & Natural Gas Corpn (down 0.85%), Mahanagar Gas (down 0.82%) and GAIL (India) (down 0.76%) declined.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Bharat Electronics rose 0.23%. The Ministry of Defence has signed two contracts worth Rs 3,800 crore with Bharat Electronics (BEL), for the supply of medium power radar and digital radar warning receivers (RWR) for Indian Air Force.

Punjab National Bank (PNB) fell 0.92%. The bank announced that its board will meet on 29 March 2023 to consider the proposal for raising capital through bonds.

Tata Steel declined 1.72%. The steel major on Thursday announced that it has acquired the balance 1.35 crore shares (24.06%) of indirect wholly owned subsidiary, Tata Steel Advanced Materials from wholly owned unit, Tata Steel Downstream Products for Rs 17.33 crore.

Global Markets:

Asian stocks declined across the board on Friday, as investors weigh remarks from U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who said federal emergency actions to back up failed regional banks could be used again if necessary.

Japan`s core inflation reading fell from its January peak of 4.2% to 3.1% year-on-year in February, government data showed Friday. Overall, nationwide inflation was at 3.3% for the month compared to a year ago, also lower than the January print of 4.3%.

Wall Street closed higher on Thursday as market participants were reassured by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen`s reassurances that measures will be taken to keep Americans` deposits safe.

The Bank of England raised interest rates by a further quarter of a percentage point on Thursday and said it expects the surge in British inflation to cool faster than before. The BoE`s nine rate-setters voted 7-2 in favour of a 25 basis-point increase in Bank Rate to 4.25%.

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