The Indian equity benchmarks edged lower on Thursday taking cues from other Asian markets ahead of the monthly expiry of May futures and option contracts due later in the day. The Sensex slipped as much as 51 points and Nifty 50 index dipped below its important psychological level of 15,300.As of 9:26 am, the Sensex was down 33 points at 50,960 and Nifty 50 index was unchanged at 15,301.Asian shares retreated from two-week highs on Thursday and China started on the backfoot on fears central banks were closer to considering winding back their emergency stimulus while the dollar held at a one-week top.MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.5 per cent at 691.76, still not too far from Wednesday’s high of 696.76, a level last seen on May 10.Back home, nine of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the Nifty Private Bank index’s 0.5 per cent fall. Nifty Bank, Media, Financial Services, Metal, Pharma and Realty indices were also trading with a negative bias.On the other hand, information technology shares were outperforming other sectors as Nifty IT index advanced over 1 per cent.Mid- and small-cap shares were trading on a flat note as Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices were trading little changed.Bharat Petroleum shares rose 1 per cent to hit fresh 52-week high of Rs 488 after it reported profit of Rs 11,940 crore in March quarter against loss of Rs 1,361 crore during the same quarter last year.Tata Motors, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services, UPL, Indian Oil, Titan, Infosys, UltraTech Cement, HDFC Life, Eicher Motors, Adani Ports and Tata Consumer Products were also among the gainers.On the flipside, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, Asian Paints, Hindustan Unilever, IndusInd Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Grasim Industries, Coal India, HDFC Bank, ONGC and HDFC were among the losers.The overall market breadth was positive as 1,378 shares were advancing while 1,051 were declining on the BSE.
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