The Indian benchmark indices quickly erased their opening gains and slipped into the red, down over half percent, in today's(22nd December 2020) morning deals as investors were unable to shake off concerns amid the new strain of Covid-19.
The S&P BSE Sensex hovered around 45,240 levels, down 310 points, after hitting an intra-day high of 45,938. The broader Nifty50 index also fell below the 13,300-mark. HCL Tech and Tech Mahindra (both up 2%) were the top Sensex gainers, followed by ONGC, NTPC, and PowerGrid (up to over 1% each). On the other hand, Bajaj Finance and Reliance Industries slipped 1 percent, each.
All the Nifty sectoral indices, except Nifty IT, were trading lower.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices were trading half a percent and 0.8 percent higher, respectively.