Sensex, Nifty See Sluggish Start in Early Trade

The benchmark indices opened on a flat note with a negative bias on Wednesday, March 17. IT stocks were the only category that was lending support to the indices at the opening. The banking stocks continued to see selling for the third consecutive session in the early trade.  

Rising bond yields worldwide, rise in commodity prices and the concerns of growing inflation rate may keep the markets under pressure in the near future, said Siddharth Khemka from Motilal Oswal Financial Services. 

The BSE Sensex opened at 50305.21, down 59 points; Nifty-50 opened lower by 24.90 points at 14885.60. In the market breadth, around 694 shares added gains, 522 shares declined, while 71 shares were unchanged.  

Shares of ONGC, BPCl, Coal India and Asian Paints were the top index losers on Wednesday morning trade decling by over two per cent each in the early trading session. Asian Paints declined sharply after a long buying session on Tuesday as participants cleared their positions and booked profits in the company’s stock.  

SBI dipped nearly a per cent in the early trade after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed a penalty of Rs 2 crore for deficiencies in regulatory compliance. The stock price fell to Rs 374.75 from its previous close of Rs 378.55 in the early trade. 

Almost all sectors witnessed selling except the IT sector that was trading in the green. TCS, Tech Mahindra and HCL Tech made to the top gainers of the index in the early trade as they each gained over a per cent.  

The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices slipped lower too following the key indices and heavy selling in all major sectors. Midcap shed 0.58 per cent and Smallcap slipped 0.22 per cent. IDBI Bank, BHEL and Bliss GVS were the top laggards in the space.