Equity benchmark Sensex jumped over 150 points in opening trade on Thursday, but soon turned red tracking losses in index majors Axis Bank, TCS and Bajaj Finance amid negative global cues.
The 30-share BSE index was trading 53.09 points or 0.11 per cent lower at 49,849.55, and the broader NSE Nifty declined 48.45 points or 0.32 per cent to 14,981.70.
“Today USDINR spot open flat at 73.16, Yesterday it depreciated against the US Dollar for the first time in four sessions, weighed down by importer demand for the greenback and a comparatively poor regional risk appetite,” said Kshitij Purohit, Lead International Products & Commodities at CapitalVia Global Research Limited.
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“USD/INR opened on a flat note this morning and fell sharply in the first half of the session. The “Symmetrical Triangle” candlestick chart pattern gave a false breakout yesterday and prices tested support in the narrow range of 73.04-73.03. We witnessed USD/INR trimming its losses in the second half sharply by making higher highs above the day’s open. As of now, prices are again in a consolidation phase and we are expecting the downfall to continue,” he said.
ONGC was the top loser in the Sensex pack, shedding around 2 per cent, followed by Sun Pharma, Axis Bank, PowerGrid, Bajaj Finance and Nestle India.
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On the other hand, Titan, M&M, L&T, Asian Paints and ICICI Bank were among the gainers.
In the previous session, Sensex ended 290.69 points or 0.58 per cent lower at 49,902.64, and Nifty fell 77.95 points or 0.52 per cent to close at 15,030.15.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 697.75 crore on Wednesday, as per provisional exchange data.
“Domestic equities look to be flat for the day,” said Binod Modi Head-Strategy at Reliance Securities.
According to him, a visible decline in daily caseload has offered comfort to investors, which indicates that earlier assumption of daily caseload in second wave peaking-out by the end of May or mid of June holds true and adverse impact of second wave should not be felt beyond 1QFY22.
"Investors will continue to focus on the trajectory of daily caseload and vaccination ramp-up in the country in the near term," he said.
India registered a single-day spike of 2,76,110 Covid-19 infections, the fourth day in which cases have remained below the three-lakh mark, with 3,874 fresh fatalities pushing the county's total tally of cases to 2,57,72,440 and the death toll to 2,87,122. Active Covid-19 cases in country have now been recorded at 31,29,878, said the Union Health Ministry.
India's Covid-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19. India crossed the grim milestone of 2 crore on May 4.
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Meanwhile, the rupee inched higher by 3 paise to 73.15 against US dollar in early trade.
In the US, equities corrected for the third consecutive day as the release of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes showed debate emerging within the Federal Reserve over rising inflation.
While FOMC had voted unanimously to maintain accommodative policy in April, minutes showed that some members were open at the possibility of discussion around when to taper $120 billion monthly bond buying, he noted.
Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seoul were trading on a negative note in mid-session deals, while Nikkei was trading in the positive terrain.
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