Sensex, Nifty Off Day's Lows; IT, Pharma Shares Outperform

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes continue to trade on a weak note but came off intraday low levels in noon deals as information technology and pharma shares bucked the weak trend. Earlier in the day, the benchmarks staged a gap down opening wherein the Sensex fell over 500 points and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday low of 11,084.65 as rising global COVID-19 cases and concerns over fresh lockdowns in Europe weighed on sentiment across the globe.

As of 12:53 pm, the Sensex was down 152 points at 37,881 and Nifty was at 11,182, down 69 points.

"There are concerns regarding new pandemic lockdowns in Europe. Also, reports about major financial institutions allegedly moving illicit funds raised concerns among investors. Also, the market has been ignoring negative news on macroeconomic numbers, rising COVID-19 cases in India, India-China standoff etc. So, yesterday it used the global news flow as an excuse to correct," Prasanna Pathak, fund manager, Taurus Mutual Fund, told NDTV.

Nine of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the Nifty Media and Realty indexes over 2 per cent decline. Auto, FMCG, PSU banking, metal and banking shares were also facing selling pressure.

On the other hand, IT and pharma shares were witnessing buying interest.

Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing selling pressure as Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indexes fell over 1 per cent each.

Zee Entertainment was top Nifty loser, the stock fell 5 per cent to Rs 199. GAIL India, Bharti Infratel, Adani Ports, Tata Motors, ONGC, BPCL, Britannia Industries, Larsen & Toubro, Hero MotoCorp, Maruti Suzuki, Titan and Indian Oil also fell between 1.4-4 per cent each.

On the flipside, Grasim Industries, TCS, Tech Mahindra, Bharti Airtel, Cipla, Shree Cements, HCL Tech, UltraTech Cement, HDFC Life and Sun Pharma were among the gainers.

The overall market breadth was negative as 1,826 shares were declining while 618 were advancing on the BSE.