Sensex, Nifty Turn Choppy Amid Cautious Trade

Domestic stock markets swung between gains and losses on Thursday, ahead of the expiry of April derivative contracts, and tracking weakness in Asian peers. The S&P BSE Sensex rose as much as 207.54 points to hit 39,262.22 and slipped as much as 65.23 points to an intraday low of 38,989.45. The Nifty50 barometer of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) moved in a range of 11,796.75 and 11,715.95, logging a swing of 80.8 points compared with its previous close of 11,726.15.

By afternoon, stock markets were trading with losses. At 1;56 pm, the Sensex traded at 39,020.82, down 33.86 points or 0.09 per cent from the previous close, and the Nifty was at 11,724.10, down 2.05 points or 0.02 per cent.

Top laggards on the 50-scrip index were Bharti Infratel, Indiabulls Housing Finance, Vedanta, Tata Steel and Coal India, trading between 1.69 and 9.44 per cent lower. Bharti Infratel fell as much as 4.7 per cent - its worst intraday drop since January 24 - after the telecom tower operator missed expectations for quarterly profit, according to news agency Reuters.

Vedanta, Coal India, Tata Steel, Tata Motors and Sun Pharma- trading between 0.89 per cent and 2.14 per cent lower - were among the main losers on the 30-scrip benchmark index.

Nifty metal and auto indices were down by 1.35 and 0.53 per cent respectively at that time. 

On the other hand, UltraTech's parent Grasim Industries Ltd jumped over 6 per cent to its highest since October 9, 2018, according to Reuters. Reliance Industries climbed 1.6 per cent to a record high.

Shares of Yes Bank rose 4.7 per cent in their best day in over two weeks.