The domestic equity benchmarks managed to pare some losses in early afternoon trade. The Nifty traded tad above the 17,300 mark after hitting the day's low of 17,161.25. PSU bank stocks declined for second consecutive session. Trading was volatile due to the expiry of weekly index options on the NSE today.

At 12:20 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 278.78 points or 0.48% to 58,071.75. The Nifty 50 index declined 82.30 points or 0.47% to 17,305.85.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index shed 0.55% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index slipped 0.27%.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 1,243 shares rose and 1,965 shares fell. A total of 136 shares were unchanged.

Economy:

The Reserve Bank of India's rate-setting panel on Wednesday began its three-day deliberations on the next bi-monthly monetary policy. The Monetary Policy Committee is scheduled to announce its decision on August 5. While a 25 bps hike is ruled out, market opinions are reportedly split between a 35 bps hike and a 50 bps hike.

Derivatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, jumped 9.47% to 20.20. The Nifty 25 August 2022 futures were trading at 17,319.80, at a premium of 8.3 points as compared with the spot at 17,256.70.

The Nifty option chain for the 25 August 2022 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 21.7 lakh contracts at the 18,000 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 23 lakh contracts were seen at 16,500 strike price.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty PSU Bank index fell 2.27% to 2,826. The index has declined 2.76% in two sessions.

Canara Bank (down 3.94%), Bank of Baroda (down 2.85%), Indian Bank (down 2.78%), Punjab National Bank (down 2.35%) and State Bank of India (down 2.06%) were the top losers. Among the other losers were Bank of India (down 1.83%), Bank of Maharashtra (down 1.42%), Indian Overseas Bank (down 1.11%), Union Bank of India (down 0.9%) and Central Bank of India (down 0.81%).

Stocks in Spotlight:

Adani Power rose 0.38%. The company reported a multi-fold jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 4,779.86 crore in Q1 FY23 as compared to a net profit of Rs 278.22 crore in Q1 FY22. Revenue from operations in first quarter stood at Rs 13,723.06 crore, up 108.9% from Rs 6,568.86 crore reported in the same period last year.

Lupin shed 0.10%. The drug maker reported a net loss of Rs 89.1 crore in Q1 FY23 as against a net profit of Rs 542.5 crore in Q1 FY22. Total revenue from operations declined 12.3% YoY to Rs 3,743.8 crore during the quarter.

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