Sensex and Nifty50 flat amid choppy trade — SBI shares in the red after results

Indian equity benchmarks began a four-session trading week largely flat on Monday, as losses in financial and IT shares offset gains in auto, metal and consumer stocks. Globally, equity markets saw mixed moves as investors remained on the back foot amid concerns about the pace of hikes in COVID-era interest and slowing growth.

The Sensex gyrated within a 263.5-point range around the flatline amid choppy trade. The Nifty50 moved within a band of 17,359.8-17,435.6.

A total of 21 stocks in the Nifty50 basket rose at the open. Titan, Hindalco, Mahindra & Mahindra, Wipro, Bharti Airtel, PowerGrid and Coal India — rising around 0.5-1 percent each — were the top gainers.

On the other hand, Bharat Petroleum, SBI, UPL, ONGC and Britannia were the worst hit among the blue-chip laggards.

SBI Life, Tata Consumer, UltraTech, Asian Paints and Kotak Mahindra Bank — falling up to two percent — were also among the top losers.

"A paradox in the economy-market connect is that good news on the economic front can turn out to be bad news for the markets. This is what is playing out now.. The Fed might hike rates by another 75 bps in September to cool the US economy to contain inflation," said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

"Growth impulses in India are strong. Leading indicators like bank credit growth, capacity utilisation in manufacturing and auto demand suggest the economy is in a strong rebound," he said.

SBI shares succumbed to selling pressure after the country's largest bank by assets reported its financial results for the April-June period.

Bharti Airtel shares slipped by Rs 4.5 or 0.6 percent to Rs 699.1 apiece on BSE, as investors awaited the release of the telecom major's financial results due later in the day.

Overall market breadth favoured the bulls, as 1,917 stocks rose and 1,324 fell on BSE.