India indices drop after 2 days of gains on poor global cues, PSU banks shine

Investing.com -- Indian equity benchmark indices made a marginally lower opening on Thursday, tracking weak cues from global peers, with Asian shares tumbling to nine-month lows in early trade today, led by a sluggish recovery in China’s economy.

Investor concerns rose following the US Fed’s minutes of the July monetary policy meeting on a growing possibility of further interest rate hikes by the central bank’s policymakers.

Headlines Nifty 50 declined 0.44% to 19,379.9 levels and Sensex lost 269.3 points or 0.42% at 00:30 ET (04:30 GMT). The benchmark indices fell after gaining for two days in a row.

The Indian market volatility barometer India VIX accelerated up to 4% in the ongoing session and was last seen trading 3.35% higher at 12.54 points.

Sectoral indices listed under the Nifty umbrella traded on a mixed note, with gains led by a sharp uptick in Nifty PSU Bank, followed by Nifty Consumer Durables, while Nifty IT fell the most. Nifty Bank traded 0.07% higher while writing.

Top gainers on the Nifty 50 pack included Adani twins - Adani Ports (NS:APSE) and Adani Enterprises (NS:ADEL), along with Titan (NS:TITN), Axis Bank (NS:AXBK) and SBI (NS:SBI), while market heavyweights LTI Mindtree (NS:MINT), ITC (NS:ITC), PowerGrid (NS:PGRD), Cipla (NS:CIPL), and Nestlé India (NS:NEST) led the gains on the headline index.

Adani stocks rose after the US-based investment major GQG Partners bought shares worth $1.1 billion of Adani Power (NS:ADAN) through block deals on Wednesday.