India's benchmark stock indices were trading lower through midday on Friday, led by losses in index heavyweights HDFC Bank Ltd. and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. The indices fell as back-to-back strong US economic data, including a better-than-expected CPI in March, pushed back expectations of an earlier rate cut by the Fed.
At 12:44 p.m., the NSE Nifty 50 traded 181.95 points, or 0.59%, lower at 22,571.85, and the BSE S&P Sensex fell 605 points, or 0.8%, to trade at 74,402.42.
Milan Vaishnav, founder and technical analyst of Gemstone Equity Research, expects the Nifty to neither slide nor give any "runaway kind of price". He expects the Nifty to trade between 22,400 and 23,000.
Meanwhile, the Nifty Bank will be relatively stronger than the 50-stock index, he said. "As long as it trades above 48,700, all technical rebounds will play out far better in the Nifty Bank," Vaishnav said.
Shares of HDFC Bank Ltd., Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., ITC Ltd., ICICI Bank Ltd., and Titan Ltd. were weighing on the Nifty 50.
On the other hand, those of Reliance Industries Ltd., Tata Motors Ltd., NTPC Ltd., Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., and Bajaj Auto Ltd. were contributing the most to the index.
Most sectoral indices were lower with Nifty Pharma and Nifty Financial Services falling the most. Nifty Energy and Nifty Auto were the top gainers.
Broader markets outperformed. The S&P BSE Midcap was 0.40% higher, and the S&P BSE Smallcap index traded 0.29% up.
On BSE, all 12 sectors advanced, and eight declined out of 20. The S&P BSE Capital Goods rose the most.
Market breadth was skewed in the favour of sellers. Around 1,924 stocks declined, 1,723 stocks declined, and 132 remained unchanged on BSE.
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