New Delhi: The Indian equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, which started trading on a positive note on Wednesday, slipped in to the red amid high volatility.
At 10 am, the 30-share BSE platform clocked 58,076, down by marginally 65 points, while the broader NSE Nifty was trading at 17,343, down 9 points.
Asian shares rallied as fears of a Russian invasion of the Ukraine this week dissipated after Moscow indicated it was returning some troops to base from exercises. The tension over the Ukraine situation has been front-and-centre of investors’ minds.
From the Sensex platform, M&M, Bajaj Finance, HDFC, PowerGrid, NTPC, Bajaj Finserv, HCL Tech, Kotak Bank, HDFC Bank, Nestle, ITC, and Bharti Airtel were the top gainers, up 0.3-2 per cent. On the Nifty, BPCL, IOC, HDFC Life, Coal India and Grasim were the additonal gainers.
On the flipside, Titan, Tata Steel, L&T, Shree Cement, Ultratech Cement, Wipro, and ICICI Bank, meanwhile, were the top losers.
In the broader markets, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were also in the positive territory, higher up to 1 per cent.
Sensex had rebounded 1,736 points (3.08 per cent) to close at 58,142 on Tuesday. This was the biggest single-day jump for benchmark index since February 1, 2021. Nifty had settled 510 points higher at 17,352. Both the domestic indices had crashed 3 per cent on Monday, marking their worst day since mid-April 2021.
The other Asian markets were up smartly in early deals on Wednesday. Japan’s Nikkei surged nearly 2 per cent. Kospi and Taiwan gained 1.5 per cent and 1.3 per cent, respectively. Hang Seng advanced 0.8 per cent, while Shanghai added 0.4 per cent. Straits Times, however, was down 0.3 per cent.
Meanwhile, snapping its five-session losing streak, the rupee on Tuesday surged 28 paise to close at 75.32 against the US dollar amid signs of easing Russia-Ukraine tensions.
A recovery in domestic equities and weakness of the greenback overseas further helped the domestic currency, analysts said.