NSE benchmark Nifty declined by 38.40 points to end at 10,679.65 in highly volatile trade today, dragged by IT, realty, FMCG and infra...

NSE benchmark Nifty declined by 38.40 points to end at 10,679.65 in highly volatile trade today, dragged by IT, realty, FMCG, and infra sectors amid caution surrounding the Sino-US trade talks. Buying in metal, banking, finance service and pharma stocks capped losses. Overseas, European equities were trading lower as investors closely monitored trade talks between the US and China and digested new earnings reports. Asian stocks fell after the Federal Reserve reiterated plans to continue raising rates gradually amid firming inflation. Back home, the 50-share NSE Nifty ended at 10,679.65, down 38.40 points, or 0.36 percent, its lowest closing level since April 26, 2018. Intra-day, it hovered between 10,720.60 and 10,647.45. It saw an intra-day movement of about 73.15 points. On the sectoral front, IT fell by 2.04 percent, followed by realty 1.66 percent, FMCG 1.15 percent, infra 1.01 percent, media 0.51 percent, auto 0.49 percent and energy 0.45 percent.  However, metal rose by 0.76 percent, private bank 0.20 percent, finance service 0.16 percent, bank 0.14 percent, PSU bank 0.08 percent and pharma 0.06 percent.

Major index gainers were Sun Pharma, Bharti Infratel, Tata Steel, NTPC, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Hindalco, and Vedanta. Losers included HCL Tech, UPL, Eicher Motors, Kotak Bank, Indiabulls Housing Finance, Tech Mahindra, Larsen and Asian Paints. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was weak. A total of 467 scrips advanced, 1,334 declined, while 76 remained unchanged. Total securities that have hit their price bands were 211. Turnover in the cash segment fell to Rs 32,233.68 crore from Rs 35,016.49 crore as on Wednesday. A total of 14,766.08 lakh shares changed hands in 1,18,13,200 trades. The market capitalization of listed firms on the NSE stood at Rs 1, 48, 53,613.28 crores.