The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes were swinging between gains and losses as gains FMCG shares were offset with losses in banking and media shares ahead of the futures and options expiry of June contracts due later in the day. The benchmarks staged a gap down opening after the International Monetary Fund slashed its growth outlook for the country and forecast a deeper global recession. The Sensex fell as much as 369 points and Nifty 50 index briefly fell below its important psychological level of 10,200.
As of 12:14 pm, the Sensex was down 90 points at 34,778 and Nifty fell 28 points to 10,277.
The IMF on Wednesday evening predicted the Indian economy would contract by 4.5 per cent in 2020. It also expects global output to shrink 4.9 per cent this year, a sharper fall than the 3 per cent contraction predicted in April.
Meanwhile, markets are likely to remain volatile in today's session as derivative contracts for June are set to expire today, analysts said.
Nine of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by Nifty FMCG index's over 1 per cent gain. Pharma and auto shares were also witnessing some buying interest at the same time banking shares were seen coming off intraday highs.
On the other hand, IT index was down 0.2 per cent.
Mid- and small-cap shares were trading mixed as Nifty Midcap 100 index advanced 0.5 per cent while Nifty Smallcap 100 index was up 0.2 per cent.
GAIL India was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 4 per cent to Rs 105. ITC, Hero MotoCorp, Maruti Suzuki, UPL, Bajaj Auto, Grasim Industries, Hindustan Unilever, Wipro and Vedanta were also among the gainers.
On the flipside, Bharti Infratel, Eicher Motors, Infosys, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Finserv, Asian Paints, Indian Oil and Adani Ports were among the laggards.
