BSE Sensex and Nifty turned choppy in noon trade, weighed by a big loss in cigarette maker ITC and some selling pressure in auto stocks.
Cigarette maker ITC fell over 4 per cent, extending its decline after the excise duty was hiked on cigarettes. On Saturday, ITC fell over 8 per cent.
Bajaj Auto also came under the selling pressure after the two-wheeler maker said that is sales in February declined 22 per cent to 2.4 lakh vehicles.
Cement stocks like Ambuja Cement, ACC, Ultratech Cement and Grassim came in high demand and were trading 4-7 per cent higher after the Arun Jaitley proposed Rs 70,000 crore additional investment in infrastructure.
Bajaj Auto also came under the selling pressure after the two-wheeler maker said that is sales in February declined 22 per cent to 2.4 lakh vehicles.
Cement stocks like Ambuja Cement, ACC, Ultratech Cement and Grassim came in high demand and were trading 4-7 per cent higher after the Arun Jaitley proposed Rs 70,000 crore additional investment in infrastructure.
BSE FMCG index was the top sectoral loser on the BSE. The index fell 2 per cent. Apart from Godrej Consumer Products, Britannia Industries, Jubilant Foodworks, Dabur, Colgate Palmolive and HUL were also trading with a negative bias.
Metal, IT, oil & gas, realty, consumer durables and auto stocks were also facing selling pressure in trades today.
Capital goods stocks were in demand today after the government on Saturday while presenting Budget focused on investing in infrastructure development. The capital goods index was up 2.3 per cent.
The mid-cap and small-cap stocks were mostly trading flat. Both the indices were up 0.2 per cent each.
From the Nifty basket, BPCL, Ambuja Cement, Axis Bank, ACC, Larsen & Toubro, BHEL and DLF were among the gainers. At the same time, Jindal Steel, Tata Power, GAIL India, Wipro and Sesa Sterlite were among the losers.
At 2:50 PM, the Sensex was down 36 points at 29,325 while Nifty was up 11 points at 8,913.
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