Amid a choppy trading session, benchmark indices continued their downward trajectory from the morning as metals and banks weighed on the sentiment. FMCG was the only index that gained while all others slipped.

At about 11:58 am, the Sensex was down 0.12 percent at 79,902 and the Nifty was down 0.13 percent at 24,292. About 1,527 shares advanced, 1,920 shares declined, and 105 shares remained unchanged.

The broader markets also pared early gains and were trading flat to negative as the midcap index was trading 0.03 percent higher while the smallcap index slipped 0.1 percent and 0.59 percent, respectively. The midcap index hit a new high of 16,146 in the early trade.

Fear gauge or the volatility index rose by over 7 percent to hover close to the 14 mark.

Sectoral Trend

Three indices - metal, realty, and banks - were the worst hit and slipped up to 0.6 percent. In the Nifty Metal index, Hindustan Zinc, Hindustan Copper, and NMDC were the top performers. FMCG was the only bright spark during the trade buoyed by ITC, Hindustan Unilever, Godrej Consumer Products, and Marico.

Fundamental View

"The market will respond to the Q1 results which will start flowing from this week onwards. Financials have the potential to move up further in response to the expected good results. IT is showing signs of improvement. Autos will continue to show improved results. The FMCG segment which has been languishing with low volume growth is showing signs of mild recovery," said V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

He also added that disinflation and rising unemployment create the ideal macro backdrop that can facilitate a rate cut by the Fed in September itself and that's a positive for global equity markets.

Technical View

"Nifty has got a near-term target of 24,500 and 24,900 levels with the 24,000 zone maintained as the important support for now. Sensex has been in a range-bound movement, finding support near the important level of 79,500 during the intraday session, which has slightly weakened the bias and sentiment," said Vaishali Parekh, vice president of technical research at Prabhudas Lilladher. She also said that a decisive breach below the 79,400 zone would trigger a further slide in the coming days, with the 78,000 zone serving as the major important support level.

Key Nifty gainers

ONGC, Tata Consumer Products, Hindustan Unilever, Wipro, and ITC.

Key Nifty losers

Titan Company, Divis Labs, Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports and Shriram Finance

Key Sensex gainers

Hindustan Unilever, ITC, Wipro, Infosys, and Nestle India

Key Sensex losers

Titan Company, JSW Steel, UltraTech Cement, Asian Paints, and Tata Steel

Stock Moves

Bank of Baroda: Shares slipped as much as 4 percent after the lender reported the weakest deposit and advances growth in 12 quarters.

Swan Energy: Shares were locked in a 5 percent upper circuit after 1.22 million shares changed hands in a significant block deal on July 8, Bloomberg data showed. The company operates across sectors including textiles, real estate, energy, and petrochemicals.