SENSEX, NIFTY50 trade on a subdued note; IT stocks fall, capital goods shares gain

The Indian equity benchmarks were trading in a narrow range on Friday, February 20, as investor sentiment turned cautious after reports suggested that United States issued new threats against Iran.

The SENSEX was stuck in a range of 300 points and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday low of 25,386 and high of 25,485 as gains in Larsen & Toubro, Bharat Electronics, NTPC, ITC and Hindustan Unilever were offset by losses in Infosys, Bharti Airtel, Eternal, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies and Tata Consultancy Services.

As of 9:26 am, the SENSEX dropped 155 points or 0.2% to 82,342 and NIFTY50 index slipped 34 points to 25,420.

Asian markets were trading lower as caution prevailed among investors after reports suggested that United States issued new threats against Iran, despite the conclusion of Iran-US nuclear talks in Geneva on Tuesday, with Iran saying that it reached an understanding with the US on the main “guiding principles” to resolve their disputes.

Japan's Nikkei fell 1.26%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 0.7% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index dropped 0.12%.

US stocks ended lower while oil prices rose on Thursday. S&P 500 declined 0.3%, Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.54% and tech heavy Nasdaq dropped 0.31%.

Oil prices rose by around 2% on Thursday, reaching their highest levels in six months, as escalating tensions between the United States and Iran heightened concerns over potential supply disruptions in the oil-rich Middle East.

Back home, selling pressure was visible across the board as twelve of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange (NSE) were trading lower led by the NIFTY IT index's over 1% fall. NIFTY Auto, Financial Services, Media, Pharma, Realty, Healthcare and Consumer Durable indices also fell 0.1%-0.4%.

On the flipside, NIFTY Bank, PSU Bank and Private Bank indices were trading with a positive bias.

Broader markets were also witnessing selling pressure as NIFTY Midcap 100 index fell 0.2% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index declined 0.4%.

Among the individual shares, ABB surged as much as 5.15% to hit an intraday high of ₹6,009.90 after it reported strong fourth quarter earnings on Thursday.

The company won highest Q4 orders in last 5 years - up 52%. Its net profit declined 11% to ₹1,669 crore.

Infosys was top gainer in the NIFTY50 index, the stock fell 1.54% to ₹1,349. Tech Mahindra, Eternal, Wipro, HCL Tech, Bharti Airtel, Mahindra & Mahindra and Apollo Hospitals also fell between 0.34%-1.06%.

On the flipside, Coal India, Bharat Electronics, ONGC, NTPC, Titan, Hindalco and Hindustan Unilever were top gainers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was negative as 1,468 shares were declining while 1,196 were trading higher on the NSE.