Barometers witness profit booking; private bank shares drop

The key benchmark indices traded with moderate losses in mid-afternoon trade as the markets experienced volatility. The Nifty traded below the 23,550 level after hitting the day's high of 23,736.50 in early trade. Shares of private banks declined after experiencing buying demand for seven consecutive trading sessions.

At 14:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex dropped 543.70 points or 0.70% to 77,475.22. The Nifty 50 index lost 130.25 points or 0.55% to 23,538.40.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index shed 0.35% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index declined 1.15%.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 1,040 shares rose and 2,929 shares fell. A total of 128 shares were unchanged.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Private Bank declined 1.02% to 25,597.40. The index rallied 7.95% in the past seven trading sessions.

Axis Bank (down 2.15%), Kotak Mahindra Bank (down 1.56%), Federal Bank (down 1.02%), HDFC Bank (down 0.79%), ICICI Bank (down 0.45%) and IDFC First Bank (down 0.44%) declined.

Numbers to Track:

The yield on India's 10-year benchmark federal paper advanced 1.18% to 6.711 as compared with the previous close of 6.740.

In the foreign exchange market, the rupee was flat against the dollar at 85.7250.

MCX Gold futures for the 4 April 2025 settlement rose 0.11% to Rs 87,664.

The US Dollar index (DXY), which tracks the greenback's value against a basket of currencies, was up 0.05% to 104.26.

The United States 10-year bond yield advanced 0.32% to 4.322.

In the commodities market, Brent crude for May 2025 settlement advanced 31 cents or 0.42% to $73.33 a barrel.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Trent surged 3.03% after the company announced the expansion of its Westside retail chain with new store openings in Jodhpur, Jaipur, and Chennai.

Bajaj Steel Industries declined 2.36%. The company said that it has received an export order worth about Rs 43 crore ($5.03 million) from an international client.

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