After trading on a flat note in the first half, share markets in India came under pressure in afternoon deals and are presently trading 1% lower.
Benchmark indices stumbled today ahead of the US Fed monetary policy outcome, where a rate hike is expected to tame surging inflation.
Meanwhile, LIC's mega IPO opened for subscription today, which may be a reason behind today's fall.
By afternoon today, the IPO of Life Insurance Corporation was subscribed 30%, with the policyholder and employee categories seeing highest subscription at 1.04 times and 51%, respectively. The retail quota received bids up to 33%.
The government has also extended the offer for the IPO where it will be open for bidding on Saturday, 7 May as well.
RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das is scheduled to give a statement at 2 pm today.
At present, the BSE Sensex is trading down by 702 points, down 1.2%.
Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading down by 213 points.
The selling is seen across major sectors, particularly in the metal, healthcare and consumer durable stocks.
The fall on broader markets is less severe. The BSE Midcap index is down 0.5%, while the BSE Smallcap index is down 0.2%.
Titan and Bajaj Finserv are among the top losers today, down over 3%.
Reliance, Sun Pharma, HDFC Bank and HUL are the other major losers, down over 2% each.
Among individual stocks, RailTel Corporation of India gained after company received work order from Madhya Pradesh State Electronics Development Corporation.
The company will act as a system integrator for expansion of SDC and establishment of disaster recovery center. The work order is worth Rs 976.4 m.
Meanwhile, shares of Britannia surged 10% in intraday trade today, after the packaged foods company reported better-than-expected volume growth in the base business.
The company posted volume growth at around 4% in March quarter, beating estimates.
In his latest video, Chartist Brijesh Bhatia discusses why Titan can fall 25% from the current levels.
As per Brijesh, the technical charts of Titan are showing signs of weakness. Tune in to the below video to know more:
More details to follow in the upcoming commentary.
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