Sensex, Nifty Erase Intraday Gains; SBI Hits Record High After Q2 Earnings

The Indian equity benchmarks came off intraday highs in noon deals on the back of selling pressure in heavyweights like Infosys, Asian Paints, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Titan and Sun Pharma. However, the losses were capped owing to buying interest in State Bank of India, which touched record high of Rs 622.90, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, Reliance Industries and Ultratech Cement. The Sensex fell as much as 526 points from day's highest level and Nifty 50 index touched intraday low of 18,115 after hitting high of 18,255.

As of 12:24 pm, the Sensex was up 12 points at 60,962 and Nifty advanced 65 points to 18,148.

 U.S. stock futures and commodities slipped in Asia on Monday after Beijing denied it was considering easing its zero COVID-19 policy, though resilience in Asian equities took some of the sting out of the selling.

Risk assets had rallied on Friday amid speculation China was preparing to relax its pandemic restrictions, but over the weekend health officials reiterated their commitment to the "dynamic-clearing" approach to COVID cases as soon as they emerge.

Back home, ten of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty PSU Bank index's over 4 per cent gain. Nifty Metal, Bank, Auto, and Realty shares were also witnessing buying interest.

On the other hand, Healthcare, Pharma, Media and IT stocks were facing selling pressure.

Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indexes rose 0.55 per cent each.

State Bank of India was among the top Nifty gainers, the stock surged as much as 4.84 per cent to hit record high of Rs 622.70 after it reported highest quarterly profit of Rs 13,265 crore in September quarter. Its gross non-performing assets as a percentage of total advances came down to 3.52 per cent.

Britannia Industries, Adani Enterprises, Bharat Petroleum, Tata Steel, Coal India, Ultratech Cements, Tata Motors and Eicher Motors also rose between 1-2 per cent.

On the flipside, Asian Paints, Divi's Labs, Cipla, Titan, Sun Pharma, Bajaj Finserv, Infosys and Adani Ports were among the losers.

The overall market breadth was positive as 1,985 shares were advancing while 1,464 were declining on the BSE.