The key benchmarks pared most of the losses and traded near the flat line in the mid-afternoon trade. The Nifty traded near the 24,400 level after hitting day’s low of 24,210.80 in early trade. Metal shares declined after advancing in the past consecutive trading session. Trading could be volatile due to the expiry of monthly index options on the NSE.

At 14:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 41.75 points or 0.05% to 80,107.16. The Nifty 50 index shed 9.80 points or 0.04% to 24,409.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.39% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index shed 0.06%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 2,074 shares rose and 1,774 shares fell. A total of 127 shares were unchanged.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Metal index fell 1.49% to 9,129. The index shed 0.06% in the past consecutive trading session.

Welspun Corp (down 3.77%), Jindal Steel & Power (down 3.74%), Steel Authority of India (down 3.22%), Hindustan Zinc (down 2.74%), Ratnamani Metals & Tubes (down 2.4%), Tata Steel (down 1.82%), National Aluminium Company (down 1.63%), NMDC (down 1.59%), Vedanta (down 1.51%) and APL Apollo Tubes (down 1.36%) slipped.

On the other hand, Jindal Stainless (up 0.32%) and Adani Enterprises (up 0.1%) edged higher.

Numbers to Track:

The yield on India's 10-year benchmark federal advanced 1.62% to 7.077 as compared with previous close 7.086.

In the foreign exchange market, the rupee higher against the dollar. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 83.6925, compared with its close of 83.7175 during the previous trading session.

MCX Gold futures for 5 August 2024 settlement fell 1.62% to Rs 67,841.

The US Dollar index (DXY), which tracks the greenback's value against a basket of currencies, was down 0.18% to 104.20.

The United States 10-year bond yield slipped 1.08% to 4.241.

In the commodities market, Brent crude for September 2024 settlement lost 52 cents or 0.64% to $81.19 a barrel.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Aurionpro Solutions hit an upper circuit of 5% after the company’s consolidated net profit increased 13.02% to Rs 44.60 crore in Q1 FY25 as compared with Rs 39.46 crore posted in Q4 FY24. Revenue from operations rose 5.97% to Rs 261.62 crore as compared with Rs 246.87 crore posted in Q4 FY24.

H.G. Infra Engineering added 3.58% after the company said that it has declared as L-l bidder by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) for a project worth Rs 763.11 crore.

PG Electroplast rallied 7.84% after the firm reported consolidated net profit of Rs 83.69 crore in Q1 FY25, steeply higher than Rs 33.81 crore in Q1 FY24. Net revenue from operations stood at Rs 1,320.68 crore in first quarter of FY25, registering a growth of 94.90% on YoY basis.