The domestic equity indices extended losses and traded near day’s low in afternoon trade. The Nifty slipped below the 22,600 level. All the sectoral indices on the NSE traded in red, with pharma, healthcare and media stocks declining the most.

At 13:27 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 617.10 points or 0.82% to 74,421.05. The Nifty 50 index lost 175.45 points or 0.77% to 22,578.35.

The broader market outperformed the headline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.04% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index slipped 0.14%.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 1,449 shares rose and 2,289 shares fell. A total of 132 shares were unchanged.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Thursday raised India’s GDP growth forecast for the current fiscal to 7% from 6.7% earlier, saying the robust growth will be driven by public and private sector investment demand and gradual improvement in consumer demand.

Gainers & Losers:

Eicher Motors (up 1.11%), Divi's Laboratories (up 0.80%), Tata Motors (up 0.77%), Bajaj Auto (up 0.67%) and Nestle India (up 0.46%) were major Nifty gainers.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (down 4.01%), Maruti Suzuki India (down 2.29%), Titan Company (down 1.94%), Cipla (down 1.87%) and Power Grid Corporation of India (down 1.59%) were major Nifty losers.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Larsen &Tourbo declined 0.88%. The EPC major announced that it has completed the sale of its entire stake in L&T Infrastructure Development Projects (LTIDPL), a joint venture with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments).

Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories shed 0.71%. The company announced the launch of the drug-free non-invasive migraine management wearable device, Nerivio in Germany through its step-down subsidiary betapharm.

Computer Age Management Services (CAMS) rallied 3.57% after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in exercise of the powers conferred on it under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, has granted authorisation to the company to operate as an Online Payment Aggregator.

Metropolis Healthcare jumped 3.09% after the company said that its core business revenue (excluding revenue from Covid, Covid allied tests & PPP contracts) jumped approximately 15% YoY in Q4 of FY24.

Global Markets:

European shares advanced as the European Central Bank held interest rates steady again but said slowing inflation could open the door to easing monetary policy.

Asian stocks declined on Friday with investor assessing economic data from Singapore and South Korea while awaiting China trade numbers.

Singapore’s first-quarter gross domestic product climbed 2.7% year on year, advance estimates showed, faster than the 2.2% growth recorded in the last quarter of 2023. The Bank of Korea bank left its key policy rate unchanged for the 10th consecutive time at 3.50%.

US stocks closed higher on Thursday, with tech-related momentum stocks leading the charge, as fresh economic data rekindled hopes that inflation remains in a cooling trend.