The equity market is under pressure intraday after a muted start, with broad-based profit-taking after recent gains and cautious investor sentiment, amid the domestic earnings season.
witnessed an intraday fall of 215 points, while cracked over 550 points from previous close.
Sensex traded 288.86 points or 0.34 per cent lower at 84,489.98 at 12.40 pm, and Nifty 50 fell by 62.20 points or 0.24 per cent to 25,903.85.
The midcap index slipped, while the smallcap index remained flat at the time of writing. Across sectors, most indices traded in negative territory, led by declines of nearly 1 per cent in IT, consumer durables, and realty stocks. On the other hand, metal stocks gained over 1 per cent, while PSU banks registered modest advances.
Top gainers & losers
SBI Life, JSW Steel, , HDFC Life and Eicher Motors led the gainers of Nifty 50, while Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, Tech Mahindra, ICICI Bank and Titan Company declined the most.
About 3,065 stocks were traded on the National Stock Exchange, with 1,300 advancing and 1,665 declining, while 100 remained unchanged. Around 65 stocks, such as Aditya Birla Capital, Canara Bank, Cartrade Tech, CUB, DCB Bank, Hindalco, and Federal Bank touched their 52-week highs, whereas 40 hit their 52-week lows.
Meanwhile, 56 stocks were in their upper circuit, and 37 stocks hit the lower circuit.
Shares of Vodafone Idea, Suzlon, Kalamandir and Yes Bank featured among the most active equities by volume traded.
Indus Towers led midcap gainers
Under the midcap segment, Suzlon, Motilal OFS, IndusInd Bank, Indian Bank, Indus Towers, IDFC First Bank and SAIL surged 2-4 per cent, while Supreme Industries, Vodafone Idea, BSE, Premier Energies and Oil India fell 2-4 per cent.
Smallcap stocks Deepak Fertilizers, Welspun Corp, MRPL, IIFL, Kaynes Tech and Devyani International gained 2-4 per cent, while Aegis Vopak, Aditya Bila Real Estate, BEML, Angel One and MCX dragged 2 per cent.
On the BSE, shares of Cartrade Tech, IDBI and Netweb Technologies zoomed 7-9 per cent, while Bata India, Supreme Industries, Vodafone Idea and Sterling and Wilson Reneawble Energy fell 3-4 per cent.
Cartrade Tech, , Indus Towers, , Adani Energy and few other stocks remained in focus due to Q2 results.