Domestic benchmark equity indices opened flat on Thursday, ie, weekly F&O expiry. The BSE Sensex fell 141.16 pts or 0.23% to 60,206.93 and NSE Nifty 50 dipped 37.90 pts or 0.21% to 17,716.50. Bank Nifty plunged 77.20 pts 0.19% to 41,499.90. The top gainers on Nifty 50 were Apollo Hospital (up 2.42%), Tata Steel (up 2.02%), Hindalco (up 1.69%), JSW Steel (up 1.20%) and Axis Bank (up 1.16%) while Adani Enterprises (down 2.49%), SBI Life (down 1.27%), Reliance (down 1.20%), Adani Ports (down 1.02%) and ICICI Bank (down 0.96%).
Sectoral Indices
The sectoral indices were trading mostly in red. Bank Nifty fell 0.19%, PSU Bank dropped 0.03%, Nifty IT was down 0.19%, Nifty Auto was down 0.47%, Nifty FMCG was down 0.40% while Nifty Pharma rose 0.22%.
Asian and US stock markets
Asian markets were trading mixed with China’s Shanghai Composite index rising 0.04%, Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed 0.58% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.06% and South Korea’s KOSPI dipped 0.14%.
The US market also ended the overnight session on a mixed note with Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 0.18%, the tech-heavy Nasdaq rising 0.40% and S&P 500 climbing 0.15%.
FII and DII data
Foreign institutional investors (FII) net bought shares worth Rs 3,671.56 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DII) net sold equities worth Rs 937.8 crore on 8 March, according to the provisional data available on the NSE.
NSE F&O Ban
The National Stock Exchange has Balrampur Chini on its F&O ban list for 9 March. According to the NSE, stocks are prohibited in the F&O sector when they have exceeded 95% of the market-wide position limit (MWPL). During the F&O ban period, no new positions are permitted for F&O contracts in that stock.