Nifty below 23,250; financial services shares decline

The key equity benchmarks traded with modest losses in mid-afternoon trade. The Nifty traded below the 23,250 mark. Financial Services shares declined after advancing for the previous trading session.

At 14:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, slipped 382.78 points, or 0.49% to 76,668.45. The Nifty 50 index lost 95.35 points or 0.41% to 23,216.25.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.10% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index fell 0.10%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,810 shares rose and 2,045 shares fell. A total of 135 shares were unchanged.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Financial Services index lost 1.56% to 22,585.95. The index added 1.76% in past consecutive trading sessions.

Axis Bank (down 4.62%), Shriram Finance (down 3.86%), Kotak Mahindra Bank (down 2.97%), Cholamandalam Investment & Finance Company (down 2.8%), ICICI Bank (down 2.22%), ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company (down 1.9%), HDFC Asset Management Company (down 1.85%), Multi Commodity Exchange of India (down 1.67%), Muthoot Finance (down 1.49%) and SBI Cards & Payment Services (down 1.37%) declined.

On the other hand, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company (up 2.6%), SBI Life Insurance Company (up 0.66%) and HDFC Life Insurance Company (up 0.01%) added.

Numbers to Track:

The yield on India's 10-year benchmark federal paper was up 1.76% to 6.873 as compared with previous close 6.865.

In the foreign exchange market, the rupee edged lower against the dollar. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 86.6275, compared with its close of 86.6100 during the previous trading session.

MCX Gold futures for 5 February 2025 settlement shed 0.32% to Rs 78,975.

The US Dollar index (DXY), which tracks the greenback's value against a basket of currencies, was rose 0.16% to 109.11.

The United States 10-year bond yield fell 0.22% to 4.596.

In the commodities market, Brent crude for March 2025 settlement added 43 cents or 0.53% to $81.72 a barrel.

Stocks in Spotlight:

CG Power and Industrial Solutions advanced 2.64% after the company informed about the grant of subsidy of Rs 3,501 crore from the Government of India for setting up semiconductor assembly facility.

Amal hit an upper circuit of 20% after the company's consolidated net profit zoomed to Rs 16.53 crore in Q3 FY25 as compared with Rs 2.26 crore posted in Q3 FY24. Revenue from operations surged 77% to Rs 45.79 crore in Q3 FY25 as compared with Rs 25.87 crore in Q3 FY24.

AstraZeneca Pharma India rose 0.61%. The firm received approval from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) to import pharmaceutical formulations of eculizumab concentrate, marketed as Soliris.