Sensex, Nifty trade on tepid note as poor quarterly earnings dent sentiment

As sentiment remains weak after a lacklustre start to the quarterly earnings season and amid tepid global cues, Indian equity indices opened flat on Wednesday. Gains from banking and financial stocks were offset by index heavyweight Infosys and Reliance.

The BSE Sensex was trading 49 points or 0.08% lower at 59,677. Nifty50 was at 17,644, down 16 points or 0.09% at around 9.17 am.

In the Sensex pack, Infosys was the top laggard, falling over 1%. Asian Paints, Sun Pharma, HUL, HCL Tech and Nestle also opened lower. On the flip side, Tata Steel, M&M, L&T, HDFC, HDFC Bank and Power Grid opened with gains.


Shares of ICICI Lombard opened over 4% lower even as the company's quarterly profit jumped 40% YoY. Zydus Lifesciences opened higher after the firm received US FDA approval for drug to prevent postmenopausal osteoporosis

Sectorally, Nifty IT fell 0.81%, and Nifty FMCG declined 0.61%. Pharma, media, healthcare, private banks, and oil & gas sectors also opened lower. Whereas, in the broader market, Nifty Smallcap50 rose 0.10%, and Nifty Midcap50 surged 0.20%.

Global Markets
US stock indexes closed little changed on Wall Street following a mixed set of earnings results from big companies. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down less than 0.1% to 33,976. The broad-based S&P 500 added 0.1% at 4,155, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index slipped less than 0.1% at 12,153.41.

Asian markets opened mostly down on Wednesday following a tepid lead from Wall Street, with traders trying to assess the Federal Reserve's next moves in the fight against inflation. Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.38%, while China's Shanghai Composite declined 0.21%.

Experts Views
"For the near-term, there are no triggers that can take the market sharply up or down. So expect a brief consolidation phase for the market," V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said.

"Investors should closely watch the results that surprise on the upside along with positive management commentary. Such stocks will remain resilient even in a weak market, Vijayakumar said.

Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities, said, "Nifty continued the downtrend amidst sluggish activity levels. It could now remain in the 17574-17759 band for the near term."

Crude Price Falls
Oil drifted lower on Wednesday as the market weighed potential interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve that could slow growth and dampen oil consumption, offsetting falling US inventories and strong Chinese economic data. Brent crude futures shed 7 cents to $84.70 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate US crude was down 5 cents to $80.81 a barrel.

Currency Watch
The Indian rupee fell by 7 paise to 82.11 against the US dollar in early trade. The dollar index, which tracks the movement of the greenback against a basket of six major world currencies, rose 0.02% to 101.76 level.

(With inputs from agencies)