The headline equity benchmarks traded with substantial losses in early afternoon, impacted by geopolitical tensions arose after Iran's attack on Israel. The Nifty traded below the 22,400 level. IT shares extended losses for the second consecutive trading session.

At At 12:29 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, slipped 438.93 points or 0.59% to 73,805.97. The Nifty 50 index declined 126.90 points or 0.56% to 22,392.50.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index lost 0.91% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index fell 0.85%.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 894 shares rose and 2,912 shares fell. A total of 141 shares were unchanged.

Economy:

India's wholesale inflation rate quickened to three-month high of 0.53 percent in February, mainly driven by food and primary articles, data released by the commerce ministry on April 15 showed.

Wholesale Price Index (WPI) inflation stood at 0.2 percent in February and 1.34 percent in March 2023. Food prices rose 4.65 per cent as compared with an increase of 4.09 percent in February.

For the FY24, the wholesale inflation index fell 0.7 percent versus a 9.41 percent rise a year ago.

Retail inflation eased to a five-month low in March on the marginally moderating food inflation, while industrial output growth rebounded to a four-month high in February, led by robust infra sectors and consumer durables output.

India's retail inflation eased to 4.85% on an annual basis in March as against 5.09% in the previous month, data showed on Friday. Meanwhile, the industrial production surged to a four-month high of 5.7% in February compared with 4.3% in the previous month.

Derivatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, jumped 4.70% to 12.08. The Nifty 25 April 2024 futures were trading at 22,482.90, at a premium of 90.4 points as compared with the spot at 22,392.50.

The Nifty option chain for the 25 April 2024 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 55.3 lakh contracts at the 23,500 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 41.1 lakh contracts were seen at 22,000 strike price.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty IT index dropped 1.22% to 34,592.55. The index fell 1.98% in past two trading sessions.

Coforge (down 3.14%), L&T Technology Services (down 2.4%), Tech Mahindra (down 1.65%), Persistent Systems (down 1.61%), HCL Technologies (down 1.43%), Wipro (down 1.39%), LTIMindtree (down 1.37%), Mphasis (down 1.22%), Infosys (down 1.06%) and Tata Consultancy Services (down 0.55%) declined.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) shed 0.55%. The company announced that its consolidated net profit increased 12.44% to Rs 12,434 crore in Q4 FY24 as compared with Rs 11,058 crore in Q3 FY24. Revenue from operations increased 1.08% QoQ to Rs 61,237 crore in Q4 FY24.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Ami Organics rose 1.77% after its board approved the proposal for raising of funds in one or more tranches for an aggregate amount not exceeding Rs 500 crore.

Harsha Engineers International (HEIL) slipped 1.24%. The company said that it has entered into an agreement with Umbra Group S.p.A for appointing HEIL as the exclusive agency to engage and carry out the services pertaining to the products of the Umbra Group in India.