At 9:20 am, the S&P BSE Sensex index traded 90.5 points or 0.17 per cent lower at 52,682.55. The index had shed as many as 100 points in early trade. Nifty50 quoted at 15,846.20, down 23.05 points or 0.15 per cent.
While investors are concerned over the outcome of the US central bank’s policy review, a majority of fund managers surveyed by BofA believe inflation is transitory and expect the Fed to signal tapering only in August and September.
Among Sensex stocks, Power Grid fell 0.71 per cent to Rs 245.75. Asian Paints declined 0.5 per cent to Rs 3,026.50. Dr Reddy’s Labs, HCL Tech and Bajaj Auto edged 0.3-0.4 per cent lower. , Maruti Suzuki, Titan and Nestle India traded marginally lower.
On the flipside, ONGC added 1.4 per cent to Rs 127. M&M rose 0.6 per cent to Rs 814. Sun Pharma, ITC and SBI edged higher.
PFC gained 1.4 per cent after the state-run NBFC posted a multifold jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 3,906.05 crore for the January-March quarter.
Dalmia Bharat added 1.6 per cent after the sugar producer said it is planning to increase its ethanol manufacturing capacity to 15 crore litres per annum from January 2022, from the current 8 crore litres.
LIC Housing fell 2 per cent after the mortgage financier reported a 5 per cent decline in profit after tax to Rs 398.92 crore in the quarter ended in March 2021 due to higher provisioning for bad loans.
CESC, Asahi India Glass, Rites, Somany Ceramics, Welspun Enterprises, Nureca, RSPG Ventures, Olectra Greentech, DIC India, EKI Energy Services and Manaksia Steels were some of the companies slated to report their March quarter results later in the day.
