Mumbai: India's equity indices on Wednesday (January 8) recovered from low but end with a marginal loss with the Sensex closing 51.73 points down at 40817.74, and the Nifty down 27.60 points at 12025.40. Major gainers on the Nifty were Bharti Airtel, TCS, Yes Bank, UltraTech Cement, and UPL, while Eicher Motors, Coal India, L&T, IOC and ONGC were the top losers.
About 1008 shares have advanced, 1413 shares declined, while 179 shares remain unchanged. Except for FMCG and IT, other sectoral indices ended lower led by the auto, metal, pharma, and infra.
In the afternoon session, indices extended losses after Iran fired missiles at US forces in Iraq overnight, pushing oil prices higher as investors feared a wider conflict in the Middle East.
At 12:30 pm, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 221 points to 40,648 while the Nifty 50 edged lower by 78 points at 11,975.
During early hours on Wednesday, equity indices traded lower on increasing US-Iran tensions. At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex dipped by 88 points to 40,781 while the Nifty 50 edged lower by 45 points at 12,008. All sectoral indices were in the red zone except for Nifty IT which gained slightly by 0.15 per cent. Nifty PSU bank lost by 1.34 per cent each, metal by 0.9 per cent and realty by 0.6 per cent.
Among stocks, Bharat Petroleum Corporation took a hit of 2.2 per cent at Rs 450.75 per share while IndianOil Corporation dropped by 1.4 per cent. Infrastructure engineering major Larsen & Toubro dipped by 2 per cent as Eicher Motors, JSW Steel, Hindalco, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and UPL traded in the negative terrain.
However, IT majors Tata Consultancy Services and Tech Mahindra besides Yes Bank and Bajaj Auto showed marginal gains.
Meanwhile, Asian financial markets were roiled with stocks sliding as investors feared a wider conflict in the Middle East. MSCI`s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan was down by 0.47 per cent and China`s blue-chip CSI300 index was 0.48 per cent lower. Japan`s Nikkei was down by 1.2 per cent. Iran`s missile attacks on the Ain Al-Asad airbase and another at Erbil in Iraq early on Wednesday came hours after the funeral of an Iranian commander whose killing in a US drone strike has intensified tensions in the region.
(With Agency Inputs)
