The Indian equity benchmarks erased intraday gains in noon deals on the back of selling pressure in HDFC, Bajaj Finance, Larsen & Toubro, Infosys, Bajaj Finserv and Bharti Airtel. The Sensex fell as much as 729 points from day's highest level and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday low of 17,704 after hitting high of 17,905 during the session.
As of 1:14 pm, the Sensex was down 15 points at 59,586 and Nifty 50 index rose 11 points to 17,757.
Investors turned to profit booking at intraday highs as they have turned cautious of rising Coronavirus cases impacting the pace of nascent economic recovery, analysts said.
Seven of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the Nifty Media index's 0.5 per cent fall. Nifty Auto, Financial Services, Metal and Consumer Durables indices were also trading lower.
On the other hand, FMCG, IT, Private Bank, Healthcare and Oil & Gas shares were witnessing buying interest.
Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing a mild buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indexes rose around 0.2 per cent each.
Among the individual shares, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-owned Titan Company rose as much as 3.48 per cent to hit record high of Rs 2,687 on the BSE after the company reported strong December quarter growth update across verticals post market hours on Thursday. Titan's jewellery business rose 37 per cent in December quarter year-on-year (Yo-Y) and company added 14 stores to achieve total store count of 428 stores, the Bangalore-based company said in a stock exchange filing.
Grasim Industries was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 4.2 per cent to Rs 1,793. ONGC, Tata Consumer Products, Hindalco, Asian Paints, Britannia Industries, Shree Cements, Hindustan Unilever, Nestle India and Divi's Labs also rose between 1-3 per cent.
On the flipside, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, Mahindra & Mahindra, HDFC, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Steel, Adani Ports, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Auto and Cipla were among the losers.
The overall market breadth was positive as 1,991 shares were advancing while 1,341 were declining on the BSE.
