Market under pressure; Sensex slides 608 pts

The benchmark indices continued to trade in a narrow range in afternoon trade. The Nifty hovered below the 21,900 level. All the sectoral indices on the NSE were in the red with IT, media and pharma stocks witnessed selling pressure.

At 13:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 608.27 points or 0.84% to 72,140.15. The Nifty 50 index lost 193.05 points or 0.88% to 21,862.65.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index slipped 0.99% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index shed 0.76%.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 1,245 shares rose and 2,483 shares fell. A total of 120 shares were unchanged.

Gainers & Losers:

Bajaj Finance (up 1.39%), Bajaj Auto (up 1.03%), Kotak Mahindra Bank (up 0.88%), Hindalco Industries (up 0.86%) and Bharti Airtel (up 0.55%) were major Nifty gainers.

BPCL (down 3.39%), Nestle India (down 3.33%), Tata Consultancy Services (down 3.31%), Tata Consumer Products (down 3.29%) and Britannia Industries (down 2.59%) were major Nifty losers.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Tata Steel added 0.27%. Tata Steel UK has decided to cease operations of the Coke Ovens at the Port Talbot plant, in Wales, following a deterioration of operational stability. Tata Steel UK will increase imports of coke to offset the impact of the coke oven closures.

Lemon Tree Hotels shed 0.31%. The company has signed a License Agreement for Lemon Tree Hotels Agartala, Tripura. The Hotel is expected to open in FY 2027.

Sonata Software fell 0.09%. The company said that it has signed joint go-to-market agreement for five years with Zones to simplify enterprise application. As part of the five-year partnership, Zones and Sonata Software will support cost efficiency and data optimization through joint offerings and delivery of industry-specific solutions.

Global Markets:

Most of European stocks edged higher while Asian stocks traded mixed as investors look ahead to the start of the U.S. Federal Reserve�s two-day policy meeting.

Japan�s central bank raised its benchmark interest rate, the short term rate was raised to a range of 0% to 0.1% from -0.1%. It�s the first rate hike since February 2007.

The Reserve Bank of Australia held its benchmark rate at 4.35% for the third meeting in a row.

Wall Street`s main indexes closed higher on Monday, as tech companies gained, while investors awaited monetary policy guidance from the Federal Reserve. Investors will be watching insights on the U.S. central bank`s future rate trajectory.

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