The benchmark equity indices were flat during the mid-day trade on Thursday. The BSE Sensex of 30 shares opened at 33,843.47 after which it also gained more than 100 points but it was not long before this gain turned into a loss. By 11:08 AM, it was at 50 points in the red. Even after opening with a gain, Nifty was still down by 0.20 percent. All the Pharma stocks were performing very we, in fact outperforming which led to the pharma sub-index of Nifty to grow by a percent almost. The sub-indices of metal, as well as the bank, sipped down by 0.50 percent.
Along with the Nifty BSE going up and down, there were also some gainers as well as losers. Some of the major gainers included Mahindra & Mahindra, Sun Pharma, Wipro and Dr. Reddy. On the other hand, some of the major losers included ICICI Bank, NTPC, and Yes Bank. The shares of the banks went down due to the news of yet another fraud at the Punjab National Bank increasing the gloomy sentiment on the public-sector lenders. After the government of India decided to continue the urea subsidy scheme till 2020 and also implemented the direct benefit transfer, the prices of the fertilizer stocks increase as well. Not only did this happen but the Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers, Madras Fertilizers and the National Fertilizers too gained around 4-6 percent.