The key equity indices continued to pare losses in mid-afternoon trade. The Nifty traded above the 17,650 level after hitting the day's low of 17,574.05 in morning trade. Realty stocks witnessed buying demand for third consecutive trading sessions.

At 14:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 550.66 points or 0.91% to 59,880.34. The Nifty 50 index lost 132.90 points or 0.75% to 17,695.10.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.39% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 0.18%.

The market breadth was almost even. On the BSE, 1,777 shares rose and 1,783 shares fell. A total of 162 shares were unchanged.

Disappointing performance by domestic IT giant Infosys (down 9.50%) coupled with the prospect of more rate hikes by major central banks and a global economic slowdown dented the domestic investor sentiment.

Economy:

India's annual wholesale price index (WPI) based inflation eased to 29-month low of 1.34% in March 2023 as compared to 3.85% recorded in February 2023 and 14.63% in March 2022.

“Decline in the rate of inflation in March, 2023 is primarily contributed by fall in prices of basic metals, food products, textiles, non-food articles, minerals, rubber & plastic products, crude petroleum & natural gas and paper and paper products,” the Ministry of Commerce & Industry said in a statement today.

Separately, India's March goods exports declined 13.9% to $38.38 billion and imports declined 7.9% to $58.11 billion. In March 2022, goods exports were $44.57 billion and imports were $63 billion. March's trade deficit is at $19.73 billion. The total trade deficit for 2022-23 is at $122 billion, according to the government.

Numbers to track:

The yield on India's 10-year benchmark federal paper advanced to 7.240 from 7.229 in previous trading session.

In the foreign exchange market, the rupee edged lower against the dollar. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 81.9475, compared with its close of 81.85 during the previous trading session

MCX Gold futures for 5 June 2023 settlement added 0.30% to Rs 60,510.

The US Dollar index (DXY), which tracks the greenback's value against a basket of currencies, was up 0.19% to 101.75.

The United States 10-year bond yield fell 0.26% to 3.513.

In the commodities market, Brent crude for June 2023 settlement declined 42 cents or 0.49% to $85.89 a barrel.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Realty index rose 0.94% to 429.20. The index has gained 2.15% in three trading sessions.

Brigade Enterprises (up 4.24%), Phoenix Mills (up 2.62%), Macrotech Developers (up 2.4%), Prestige Estates Projects (up 0.28%) and DLF (up 0.28%) Oberoi Realty (up 0.09%) advanced.

Stocks in Spotlight:

KIOCL zoomed 16.54% after the company announced that National Mineral Exploration Trust (NMET), Ministry of Mines, Govt. of India, has approved two mineral exploration projects to be executed by the company.

Jubilant Ingrevia jumped 0.99% after the company announced that it has commissioned new acetic anhydride plant, at its manufacturing facility at Bharuch, Gujarat. The plant adds around 60,000 MT of capacity, whereby scaling the company's overall annual acetic anhydride capacity to 210,000 MT.