Sensex falls over 100 pts, Nifty trades near 18,250; LIC gains, Adani group, PSBs, auto shares drag

Domestic markets opened slightly lower on Thursday after US equities slumped amid worries over debt default. BSE Sensex opened 57.16 points, or 0.09 per cent down at 61,716.62, while broader NSE Nifty50 slipped 16.20 points, or 0.09 per cent to open at 18,269.20.

By 9.25 am, Sensex was down 105.46 points, or 0.17 per cent at 61,668.32, while the Nifty50 was down 34.30 points, or 0.19 per cent to trade at 18,251.10.

The stock of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) jumped 3 per cent in the opening trade after the general insurer posted 466 per cent in its Q4 net profit. Meanwhile, Nykaa’s share slumped nearly 2 per cent after the beauty and fashion platform’s profit plunged 72 per cent in the fourth quarter.

Hindalco’s share, on the other hand, fell over 1 per cent after the company posted 37 per cent fall in its net profit.

Hindalco, Adani Enterprises, JSW Steel, Tata Motors, Adani Ports, Sun Pharma, Maruti, ONGC, Axis Bank and Tata Steel were the top losing stocks in the morning trade.

On the other hand, Britannia, PowerGrid, Bajaj Auto, ITC, Nestle India, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Bharti Airtel, and L&T were the top gaining stocks.

Adani Group stocks continued to slump for the second day straight on profit booking.

Sectorally, only the realty and FMCG index were trading in green at the time of writing, as the PSU Bank index fell 0.59 per cent, the auto index slumped 0.34 per cent, the IT index was down 0.33 per cent, and the media and oil & gas sector were trading 0.32 per cent lower.