The domestic equity benchmarks traded with minor gains in mid-afternoon trade, supported by buying in private banking and pharmaceutical stocks, ahead of the weekly expiry of Sensex futures and options contracts. Nifty traded above the 23,200 level. Pharma shares advanced after declining in the past trading session.
At 14:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, jumped 53.12 points or 0.07% to 74,036.30. The Nifty 50 index rose 24.50 points or 0.06% to 23,224.40.
The broader market underperformed the frontline indices. The BSE 150 MidCap Index fell 0.62% and the BSE 250 SmallCap Index shed 0.55%.
The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 1,303 shares rose and 2,792 shares fell. A total of 191 shares were unchanged.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty Pharma index advanced 1.03% to 24,410.10. The index shed 0.53% in the past trading session.
The yield on India's 10-year benchmark federal paper shed 0.06% to 6.909 compared with the previous session close of 6.913.
In the foreign exchange market, the rupee edged lower against the dollar. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 95.7400 compared with its close of 95.2500 during the previous trading session.
MCX Gold futures for 5 August 2026 settlement fell 0.44% to Rs 1,47,370.
The US Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the greenback's value against a basket of currencies, was up 0.06% to 100.10.
The United States 10-year bond yield shed 0.15% to 4.534.
In the commodities market, Brent crude for August 2026 settlement declined $1.30 or 1.40% to $91.80 a barrel.
Stocks in Spotlight:
Alembic Pharmaceuticals advanced 0.28%. The company announced that it has received tentative approval from the US Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) for its abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) for Larotrectinib capsules.
Tata Consultancy Services shed 0.80%. The company entered into a global strategic partnership with Anthropic to accelerate enterprise adoption of artificial intelligence using Anthropic's Claude family of AI models.