Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- ended Thursday’s trading session on a lower note, dragged by selling in Realty and Bank stocks. Index made a negative start, as traders were cautious after the dollar surged and U.S. Treasury yields hit their highest in nearly nine months on worries about U.S. fiscal position. Traders ignored report stating that India’s services sector expanded at its fastest pace in over 13 years in the month of July, aided by substantial improvement in international demand. As per the survey report, the seasonally adjusted S&P Global India Services PMI Business Activity Index jumped at 62.3 in July from 58.5 in June. Further, the S&P Global India Composite PMI Output Index -- which measures both manufacturing and services -- surged to 61.9 in July as against 59.4 in June.
In afternoon session, index extended its losses and traded near day’s low point, as investors were cautious with a private report stating that with inflation inching up, the Reserve Bank of India is likely to maintain the status quo on key interest rates. The six-member Monetary Policy Committee, headed by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, will hold the meeting from August 8 to 10. In last leg of trade, index trimmed some of its losses and settled below 19400 mark.
Traders were seen piling up positions in Pharma, MEDIA and Healthcare Index stocks, while selling was witnessed in Realty, Financial Services and Bank. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Indiabulls Housing Finance, Dixon Technologies (India) and Laurus Labs. On the other hand, the top losers were Vedanta, Godrej Properties and Delta Corp. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 19900 - 20100 calls and 19600 - 19800 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.
