Indian equity benchmarks fell sharply in the late morning session, on the back of mixed cues from other Asian markets. Traders became cautious after the Reserve Bank of India turned net seller of the US dollar in June after selling USD 3.719 billion on a net basis. In June, the central bank purchased USD 18.96 billion from the spot market and sold USD 22.679 billion.

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The Sensex is trading at 59,845.13, down by 452.87 points or 0.75% after trading in a range of 59,728.92 and 60,411.20. On the index, 7 stocks advanced and 23 stocks declined.

The broader indices were trading in green with the BSE Midcap index down by 0.81% and the Small-cap index down by 0.45%. The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 0.79%, Utilities up by 0.71%, TECK up by 0.58%, IT up by 0.56%, and Telecom up by 0.41%, while Realty down by 1.56%, PSU down by 1.41%, Bankex down by 1.25%, Auto down by 1.01% and Healthcare down by 1.01% were the top losing indices on BSE.

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The top gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro up by 1.22%, Infosys up by 0.99%, Tech Mahindra up by 0.87%, and HCL Tech. up by 0.52% and Wipro up by 0.51%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank was down by 3.23%, Bajaj Finserv down by 2.23%, Bajaj Finance down by 2.18%, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.04%, and Power Grid down by 2.03% were the top losers.

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The Nifty is trading at 17,820.50, down by 136.00 points or 0.76% after trading in a range of 17,783.00 and 17,992.20. On the index, 10 stocks advanced and 40 stocks declined.

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The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Ports & SEZ up by 2.97%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.18%, Infosys up by 1.08%, Tech Mahindra up by 0.81%, and Wipro up by 0.54%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 3.23%, Bajaj Finance down by 2.17%, Bajaj Finserv is down by 2.13%, Apollo Hospital down by 2.08%, and Maruti Suzuki down by 2.07% were the top losers.

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Asian markets were trading mixed with Straits Times trembling 23.55 points or 0.72% to 3,249.93, KOSPI fell 12.85 points or 0.51% to 2,495.20, Nikkei 225 slipped 8.93 points or 0.03% to 28,933.21 and Shanghai Composite declined 9.08 points or 0.28% to 3,268.46. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite soared 12.01 points or 0.17% to 7,198.57, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 12.02 points or 0.08% to 15,408.78 and Hang Seng increased 48.29 points or 0.24% to 19,812.20.