Domestic stock markets started Thursday's session on a negative note, halting a rally that lasted eight consecutive sessions, despite equities in other parts of Asia scaling a more than two-year peak.
The S-P BSE Sensex index fell 303.04 points - or 0.70 per cent - to 43,290.63 at the weakest level of the day, and the broader NSE Nifty 50 benchmark declined to as low as 12,692.00, down 57.15 points - or 0.45 per cent - from its previous close.
Losses in banking and financial services shares weighed on the markets, whereas gains in automobile and IT stocks arrested the fall.The markets recovered most of initial losses in the first few minutes of trade.
At 9;24 am, the Sensex traded 61.16 points - or 0.14 per cent - lower at 43,532.51 while the Nifty was down 15.15 points - or 0.12 per cent - at12,734.00.Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will address a press conference at 12:30 pm.The government is planning to announce a fresh round of stimulus totalling about Rs 1.5 lakh crore this week to help pull the economy out of its historic contraction, officials said on Wednesday.The Centre's laststimuluspackage, in May, largely failed to soften blow of the strict coronavirus lockdown as it focused on providing liquidity and collateral-free credit for small businesses but with little actual spending.On Wednesday, it announced production-linked incentives worth about Rs 2 lakh crore spread over five years for manufacturers in 10 sectors.Meanwhile, other Asian marketsapproached a more than two-year high on Thursday, buoyed by sustained global stimulus efforts and hopes of a coronavirus vaccine, but some analysts warned of the risk of a correction lower.MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was last seen trading 0.44 per cent higher, nearing its highest since January 2018.
Chinese shares rose 0.37 per cent while Japanese shares were up 0.62 per cent at a 29-year high.The gains in Asia came after a mixed performance for USstocks as investors switched back to technology stocks and away from economically sensitive sectors as they weighed COVID-19 vaccine progress and the likely timing of an economic rebound.