:::LALKAR GROUP::::

The domestic equity benchmarks continued to trade with heavy losses in mid-afternoon trade. Weak Asian cues played the spoilsport. The Nifty traded above the 17,100 level. IT shares witnessed some bit of value buying after declining in the past three session.

At 14:22 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 585.7 points or 1.01% to 57,513.22. The Nifty 50 index declined 195.85 points or 1.13% to 17,131.50.

The broader market underperformed the benchmark indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 2.15% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index lost 2.77%

Sellers outnumbered buyers. On the BSE, 596 shares rose, and 2,928 shares fell. A total of 136 shares were unchanged.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s six-member Monetary Policy Committee is scheduled to meet this week during 28-30 September 2022. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das will announce the MPC decision on 30 September 2022, the last date of the meeting. The RBI is widely expected to maintain the balancing act between growth and inflation.

In the past three policy reviews, the RBI's rate-setting panel has raised 140 basis points in total since May this year. Currently, the repo rate, the interest rate at which the RBI lends to the commercial bank, stands at 5.40%.

Numbers to Track:

The yield on India's 10-year benchmark federal paper rose to 7.398 as compared with 7.393 at close in the previous trading session.

The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 81.5900, compared with its close of 81.0900 during the previous trading session.

MCX Gold futures for 5 October 2022 settlement added 0.40% to Rs 49,600.

The US Dollar index (DXY), which tracks the greenback's value against a basket of currencies, was up 0.02% to 113.22.

The United States 10-year bond yield was up 0.28% to 3.718.

In the commodities market, Brent crude for November 2022 settlement fell 64 cents or 0.74% at $85.81 a barrel.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty IT index rose 1.40% to 26,965.95. The index had declined 1.58% in the past three sessions.

Infosys Ltd (up 2.13%), Coforge (up 2.05%), HCL Technologies (up 1.91%), Mphasis (up 1.57%) and Tata Consultancy Services (up 1.16%) were the top gainers.

Among the other gainers were Larsen & Toubro Infotech (up 0.95%), Mindtree (up 0.89%), Tech Mahindra (up 0.79%) and Wipro (up 0.75%).