Benchmark indices pared morning gains to turn negative dragged mainly by heavyweight RIL, FMCG and energy stocks. However, auto, metals and banking stocks continued to rise capping the losses.
Index heavyweight Reliance Industries was the top underperformer nosediving by at least 3.3% so far today after the company's chairman Mukesh Ambani presented the 44th annual general meeting where major key announcement was made in energy, O2C business, 5G network services, Reliance Jio and Reliance Retail business. The stock also fell to its day's low after equity worth Rs700cr changed hands via block deals in trade today.
At 11.07 AM, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 52,731.72, up by 33 points, while the broader NSE Nifty at 15,809.70, up 19 points or 0.012%.
Reliance was the top loser in the Sensex pack, plunging over 2%, followed by HUL, Asian Paints, Kotak Mahindra, Nestle, NTPC and Power Grid Corp.
On the Sensex,
Tata Steel was leading the charts, rising nearly 4.66% followed by Tata Mahindra, ICICI, Sun Pharma, Bajaj Finserv, SBI and Maruti Suzuki.
Shares of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) gained after the company reported a net profit of Rs6,733.97cr for the quarter ended March 2021 as against Rs1,258.12cr in the December quarter.
Shares of Ashok Leyland jumped after the company turned profitable in the March quarter.
Also,
LIC Housing Finance rose nearly 4% after the company announced that promoted Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) will infuse equity capital worth Rs2,334.70cr in the firm.
Meanwhile, oil prices rose with demand growth seen outstripping supply on bets that OPEC+ producers will be cautious in returning more output to the market from August. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 8 cents or 0.1% to USD 73.38 a barrel and Brent crude futures climbed 7 cents to USD 75.63 a barrel.