WASHINGTON: The S&P BSE Sensex was down 38 points at 23,517 and the Nifty50 was down 17 points at 7,146. In the broader market, the BSE Midcap index was down nearly 1% while the Smallcap index eased 0.3%. Market breadth turned negative with 1,058 losers and 842 gainers on the BSE.
BSE Metal index which had emerged as the top gainers in the previous session was the top loser down nearly 1% followed by Capital Goods, Healthcare and Bankex indices. Financial and IT shares were among the top losers with HDFC, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI down 0.6%-1.2% each. In the pharma space Sun Pharma witnessed profit taking and was down 0.8% while Lupin eased 0.7%. Oil shares gained tracking firm global crude oil prices. Reliance Industries, ONGC, Cairn India were up 0.3%-2.8% each.
Adani Ports was the top Sensex gainer up 4.4%. The company reported 26% rise in net profit at Rs 645 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2015 compared with Rs 512 crore for the same quarter last fiscal.
Other Sensex gainers include, Tata Motors and NTPC among others. Among other shares, Gati has surged 9% to Rs 118 on the BSE in early morning trade after the logistics company said that it is exploring strategies for growth to align with their vision of delivering 1 million packages everyday by 2020. Shares of Shilpa Medicare surged 5% to Rs 438 on the BSE after a block deal executed on the counter.
