Stock markets update: A day after the Muharram holiday, share markets opened in red as equity benchmark indices declined in early trade on Thursday amid weak trends in Asian markets and unabated foreign fund outflows. In the early trade, the 30-share BSE Sensex fell 251.93 points to 80,464.62. Meanwhile, the Nifty declined 76.6 points to 24,536.40 points.
Major gainers and laggards
Among the Sensex pack, Asian Paints went lower by 2 per cent after the company reported a 24.64 per cent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 1,186.79 crore in the June quarter, hit by demand slowdown due to severe heatwave and general elections. UltraTech Cement, Bajaj Finance, Tata Steel, JSW Steel and NTPC were among the other laggards. On the contrary, Sun Pharma, Axis Bank, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services and Bharti Airtel defied the broader market trend and were trading in the positive territory.
In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Shanghai were trading lower, while Hong Kong quoted higher. The US markets ended mostly lower on Wednesday. Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.35 per cent to USD 85.38 a barrel. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 1,271.45 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.
Rupee against dollar
Meanwhile, the rupee was trading in a narrow range against the US dollar in early trade on Thursday, tracking a weak trend in domestic equities and elevated crude oil prices. Forex traders said the USD/INR pair is expected to remain range-bound as the dollar demand from foreign investors and oil companies has been matched by the supply from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local unit moved in a narrow range. It opened at 83.57 against the American currency and touched 83.55 in initial trade, registering a rise of 3 paise from its previous close.
(With inputs from PTI)
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