Sensex and Nifty retreated from a record high in the previous session on Wednesday amid investors eyeing the upcoming budget for further cues.
The market was influenced by price cuts from a major automaker and anticipation surrounding the upcoming earnings season.
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Sensex opened at its fresh record high of 80,481.36 and declined over a per cent to touch an intraday low level of 79,435.76. The index finally closed 427 points, or 0.53%, down at 79,924.77.
Nifty 50 also hit its all-time high of 24,461.05 in early deals and fell over a per cent to 24,141.80. The benchmark index ended 109 points, or 0.45%, lower at 24,324.45.
Among the sectors, the Nifty Auto index fell 2.02%, ending as the top loser among sectoral indices.
The other sectors on the losing side were Nifty Media (1.76%), Metal (1.61%), PSU Bank (1.40%) and IT (1.03%). Nifty Bank fell 0.72% and the Private Bank index lost 0.56%.
On the Nifty 50, the gainers were Asian Paints (3.27%), SBI Life Insurance Company (2.05%), and Divi’s Laboratories (1.63%). The losers were Mahindra and Mahindra (6.69%), Hindalco (2.11%) and Tata Steel (2.10%).
The BSE Midcap index slipped 0.19%, while the BSE Smallcap index dropped 0.69%.
The overall market capitalisation of the firms listed on the BSE fell to nearly ₹450 lakh crore from nearly ₹451 lakh crore in the previous session.
Shares of HDFC Bank declined around a per cent after global brokerage firm BofA downgraded the stock to ‘neutral’ from ‘buy’.
The target price was also reduced from Rs 1,850 to Rs 1,830 per share, citing that most of the positives were already priced in.
Motilal Oswal reiterated its buy call on India’s largest FMCG player Hindustan Unilever, seeing an upside of 19% after the firm released its annual report for the financial year 2023-24.
Another watchful event on Thursday is the Sahaj Solar IPO subscriptions that will begin on Thursday, and end on Monday, July 15.
The pricing range for the Sahaj Solar initial public offering is ₹171 to ₹180 per share, with a face value of ₹10. A minimum of 800 shares, as well as multiples of those shares, are up for bid.
In the Asian market, China’s consumer price inflation rose by 0.2% in June from a year ago. The producer prices dropped by 0.8% from a year ago, in line with expectations.
However, Japan’s wholesale inflation accelerated by 2.9% in June from a year earlier.
Market participants focused on inflation data from Japan and China.
