Volatility persisted in the market ahead of expiry and led to the Sensex trading in the range of 282 points, before shutting the shop 43 points lower.
The 50-stock index held 10,600, closed with a loss of 19 points at 10,614. Midcap Index too had a flat close at 18,975. Another key index, Nifty Bank saw relatively better performance, with the banking Index closing 73 points higher at 26,328.
HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank were top gainers form the banking space whereas ICICI Bank, HDFC and ITC dragged. The auto major M&M gained for the 2nd day after reporting the stellar set of numbers for the January-March quarter. On the sectoral front, besides Banks, other sectors that closed trade with gains were, Power and media sectors. Oil and Gas, autos were major drags.
In the earnings today, Midcaps and small caps such as Satin Credit, Borosil Glass, Murudeshwar Ceramics and Nava Bharat Ventures surprised the street positively while HAL, Info Edge and Aban Offshore disappointed.
From the futures market, Nifty 10,500 Put option added 10 lakh shares in the open interest with premium slipping 64% While 10,700 Call option shed a little over 5.5 lakh shares with premium slipping 62%. MNifty May Futures discount narrowed to 2 points from Tuesday’s level of 17.75 points. Stocks that gained major traction in the futures were, Strides Shasun, Rel Infra, Dabur, Hexaware and Petronet LNG.
On the global front, Asian market continued the downmove amidst political crisis in Italy and fresh round of trade hiccup between China and the US. The Nikkei 225 fell 1.5% to 22,018.52, with the banking and non-ferrous metals sectors among the worst-performing sectors. The broader Topix was down 1.5% as 32 of its 33 subindexes finished lower. The Kospi slid 2% to close at 2,409, as heavyweights like Samsung Electronics and Posco sank 3.5% and 2% respectively. In China, the Shanghai composite lost 2.5% to close at 3,042.