Sensex slips 100 pts, Nifty trades at 18,270; IT stocks plunge, Bharti Airtel jumps

Domestic markets opened flat on Wednesday following losses in US equities amid talk on the debt ceiling limit.

BSE benchmark Sensex opened 45.02 points, or 0.07 per cent lower at 61,887.45 today, while broader NSE Nifty50 fell 3.30 points, or, 0.02 per cent to 18,283.20.

By 9.30 am, Sensex fell 101.43 points, or 0.16 per cent to 61,831.04, while Nifty50 plunged 14.40 points, or 0.08 per cent to trade around 18,272.10.

Bharti Airtel soared over 0.80 per cent today after the telco major posted around a 50 per cent rise in its consolidated net profit in the March quarter to Rs 3,006 crore.

Indian Oil Corporation soared 1.55 per cent after the major oil refinery’s net profit jumped after 5 quarters.

BPCL, Bharti Airtel, M&M, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, UltraTech Cement, Maruti Suzuki, IndusInd Bank and Power Grid were the top gainers in the morning trade.

On the other hand, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, JSW Steel, HCLTech, Wipro, Hindustan Unilever, TCS and HDFC were the top losing stocks at this hour.

Sectorally, the PSU Bank index rallied 0.86 per cent, media stocks jumped 0.38 per cent, while Nifty Consumer Durables gained 0.36 per cent. On the other hand, the IT index slumped 0.52 per cent, followed by metal stocks at 0.50 per cent.

Broader markets were largely outperforming key indices in early trade, as Nifty Microcap 250 gained 0.61 per cent, while, Nifty Smallcap 250 jumped 0.59 per cent, and Nifty Smallcap 100 rose 0.54 per cent.