Stock Market Updates: Sensex Starts Lower, Nifty Tests 19,450; Cipla Down, Lupin Up 2%

Sensex Today: Sensex and Nifty on Thursday started on a weak note as a hawkish undertone from the US Fed’s FOMC minutes. The BSE Sensex fell 36 points to 65,503, and the NSE Nifty50 opened 18 points lower at 19,444.

Titan, NTPC, SBI, Tata Steel, M&M, Maruti and Bajaj Finserv led gains on the Sensex, while Adani Ports and Adani Enterprises were the additional Nifty winners.

On the flip side, ITC, Nestle, HUL, Ultratech Cement, Tata Motors, Cipla and Eicher Motors were the top frontline drags.

The broader markets held relative strength against muted benchmarks. The BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices rose up to 0.45 per cent.

Global Cues

Tokyo shares opened lower on Thursday following losses on Wall Street as US Treasury bond yields surged to multi-year peaks.The benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 0.46 percent, or 144.84 points, to 31,621.98, while the broader Topix index slipped 0.37 percent, or 8.33 points, to 2,252.51.

Wall Street ended lower on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve’s minutes showed central bank officials were divided over the need for more interest rate hikes at their last meeting.

Oil prices fell in early trade on Thursday, extending losses to a fourth consecutive session on fears of slowing growth in China and possible further U.S. interest rate hikes weakening fuel demand in the world’s two biggest economies. Brent crude futures fell 37 cents, or 0.44%, to $83.08 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) was down 39 cents, or 0.49%, to $78.99 a barrel at 0038 GMT.