Snapping the record-setting trend, benchmark indices were trading lower in the morning deals taking cues from global trends. Asian markets were trading lower in the morning trade after reports suggesting that US President Donald Trump tried to interfere with a federal investigation set off alarm bells on Wall Street.
The allegations have not only thrown doubt over the future of the pro-growth policies that Trump promised, but they have raised the possibility he could end up leaving the presidency.
Back home, weak rupee, skepticism over GST rates and corporate earnings dragged the indices further. The rupee today opened 22 paise lower, at 1-week low of 64.37/$.
At 10:40 am, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 30,515, down 143 points, while the broader Nifty50 was ruling at 9,460, down 65 points.
In the previous session, the 30-share Sensex gained as much as 110 points to hit its fresh record high of 30,692, while the 50-share Nifty added 20 points to notch its all-time high of 9,532.
The broader markets underperformed benchmark indices with the S&P BSE Midcap index and S&P BSE Smallcap down 1.2% and 1.1% respectively.
"Despite yesterday’s sharp rise, oscillators are not wound up enough to trigger a collapse, but volatility may be slightly elevated. Upsides look limited though, for the time being, but if falls become deep, the swing back could be equally steeper. To this end, 9,386/9,280 regions will be watched out for the extent of bargain hunting that they could attract. Meanwhile 9,440 region could be pivotal to today’s swings," said Geojit financial services in a note.
Buzzing Stocks
Wipro, TCS and Lupin gained on BSE Sensex while Tata Motors, L&T, Axis Bank, Maruti and ICICI Bank lost the most on the index.
Hindustan Unilever fell nearly 1% even after it posted a 6.19% increase in standalone net profit to Rs 1,183 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, driven by robust sales across various business segments. It had had posted a standalone net profit of Rs 1,114 crore in the same period previous fiscal.
JSW Steel was trading 2.8% lower even after it announced a three-fold increase in its consolidated profit at Rs 1,008.5 crore in Q4 as against Rs 300.6 crore in the year-ago period.
Bajaj Finance was trading flat after it reported an increase of 43% in its net profit at Rs 449 crore for the March quarter.
2-day GST Council meet starts today
The 2-day GST Council meet which is likely to finalise the rates that various goods and services will attract from July 1 will started in Srinagar. The Council over the next two days will fit most of goods and services either in the 5, 12, 18 or 28 per cent tax bracket.
The two-day GST Council meet beginning today in Srinagar, will see participation from 29 states and union territories, along with Jaitley, and senior officials from the revenue department.
Global Markets
Asian stocks fell on Thursday in line with global peers, and the dollar nursed deep losses against the yen as uncertainty mounted over US President Donald Trump's future following reports that he tried to interfere with a federal investigation.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.4%. Japan's Nikkei shed 1.2%, Australian shares lost 1.1% and South Korea's Kospi declined 0.5%.
Equities in Asia took cues from Wall Street, where the Dow and S&P 500 both sank about 1.8% overnight following reports that Trump tried to influence a federal probe.