Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade lower in the late morning session, with both Sensex and Nifty falling over half a percent, on the back of negative cues from other Asian markets. Domestic sentiments got cautious after India’s manufacturing activity improved again in August, however, S&P Global’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) edged down to 56.2 from the eight-month high of 56.4 recorded in July.

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The Sensex is trading at 59,126.78, down by 410.29 points or 0.69% after trading in a range of 58,638.46 and 59,309.79. On the index, 10 stocks advanced and 20 stocks declined.

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The broader indices were trading in green with the BSE Midcap index up by 0.46% and the Small cap index up by 0.55%. The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.52%, Realty up by 1.31%, Auto up by 0.69%, Industrials up by 0.68%, and Consumer discretionary up by 0.57%, while IT down by 1.67%, TECK down by 1.39%, Energy down by 1.29%, Oil & Gas down by 1.25% and Metal down by 0.85% were the top losing indices on BSE.

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The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finserv up by 3.82%, Asian Paints up by 2.36%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.75%, Titan Co up by 1.36%, and SBI up by 1.11%. On the flip side, TCS down by 2.21%, Infosys down by 2.14%, Reliance Industries down by 1.71%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.70%, and HCL Tech. down by 1.66% were the top losers.

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The Nifty is trading at 17,646.10, down by 113.20 points or 0.64% after trading in a range of 17,485.55 and 17,695.60. On the index, 18 stocks advanced and 32 stocks declined.

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The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Finserv up by 3.88%, Asian Paints up by 2.37%, Tata Consumer Products up by 2.32%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.73%, and Grasim Industries up by 1.61%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 2.60%, Hindalco down by 2.51%, TCS down by 2.20%, Infosys down by 2.14%, and Hindustan Unilever down by 1.76% were the top losers.

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Asian markets were trading mostly in the red with the Nikkei 225 falling 430.06 points or 1.53% to 27,661.47, Hang Seng decreased 294.12 points or 1.47% to 19,660.27, Taiwan Weighted dropped 262.66 points or 1.74% to 14,832.78 and KOSPI fell 51.89 points or 2.10% to 2,420.16. On the flip side, Straits Times advanced 0.41 points or 0.01% to 3,222.08, Jakarta Composite soared 3.66 points or 0.05% to 7,182.25 and Shanghai Composite gained 0.69 points or 0.02% to 3,202.83.