The key equity indices declined further and hit fresh intraday low in mid-afternoon trade. The Nifty traded below the 17,650 mark after hitting the day's high of 17,772.35 in early trade. Consumer durable shares edged lower for second consecutive session. Trading was volatile due to expiry of weekly index options on the NSE.

At 14:27 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 449.08 or 0.74% to 59,899.01. The Nifty 50 index lost 133.50 points or 0.75% to 17,620.90.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.28% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index declined 0.13%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,540 shares rose and 1,893 shares fell. A total of 138 shares were unchanged.

Numbers to track:

The yield on India's 10-year benchmark federal paper advanced to 7.444 from 7.459 previous trading session.

In the foreign exchange market, the rupee edged higher against the dollar. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 81.93, compared with its close of 81.9550 during the previous trading session

MCX Gold futures for 5 April 2023 settlement advanced 0.03% to Rs 54,930

The US Dollar index (DXY), which tracks the greenback's value against a basket of currencies, was down 0.22% to 105.43.

The United States 10-year bond yield was up 0.29% to 3.987.

In the commodities market, Brent crude for May 2023 settlement rose 9 cents or 0.11% to $82.75 a barrel.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Consumer Durables index declined 1% to 24,032.25. The index has fallen 1.42% in the two trading sessions.

Dixon Technologies (India) (down 3.05%), Voltas (down 1.25%), Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals (down 1.15%), Titan Company (down 1.07%) were the top index losers.

Further, Amber Enterprises India (down 0.98%), Bata India (down 0.9%), Havells India (down 0.77%), V-Guard Industries (down 0.76%), Rajesh Exports (down 0.6%) and Relaxo Footwears (down 0.59%) declined.

On the other hand, Blue Star (up 0.65%), Whirlpool of India (up 0.49%) and Orient Electric (up 0.09%) advanced.

Stocks in Spotlight:

G R Infraprojects was up 0.75%. The civil construction company announced that it has been emerged as lowest (L‐1) bidder for a tender by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) under Bharatmala Pariyojana in Bihar on hybrid annuity mode. The bid project cost stood at Rs 1,248.37 crore. The construction is expected to be completed in 730 days from appointed date and the operation period is 15 years from the commercial operation date.

Magellanic Cloud rose 3.87%. The company's board approved allotment of 11,33,500 equity shares of face value of Rs 10 per share at an issue price of Rs 395 per share to strategic investors being non-promoters, aggregating to Rs 44.77 crore on preferential basis.

Apollo Pipes declined 1.93%. The company announced that its board will consider the proposal of fund raising on Tuesday, 14 March 2023. It is proposing to raise funds by way of issue of one or more instruments including equity shares/ convertible securities either by way of preferential issue/ rights issue/ QIP/ or any other mode.