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Sensex, Nifty turn negative in early noon deals
May-21-2026

Erasing all their gains, Indian equity benchmarks turned negative in early afternoon deals, on the back of mixed cues from other Asian markets along with selling at IT and TECK counters. Traders got cautious, as India's private sector growth eased marginally in the month of May 2026, amid weaker increases in total new orders, international sales, employment and business activity. The HSBC Flash India PMI Composite Output Index - a seasonally adjusted index that measures the month-on-month change in the combined output of India's manufacturing and service sectors - was down from a final reading of 58.2 in April to 58.1 in May.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed, after Japan posted a merchandise trade surplus of 301.9 billion yen in April. That blew away forecasts for a deficit of 29.7 billion yen following the 643.0 billion yen surplus in March. Back home, cement stocks were in watch, as rating agency ICRA in its latest report has said that Indian cement companies are likely to witness a 10-15 per cent decline in operating profitability to Rs 820-870 per million tonne (MT) in the current financial year (FY27) as compared to around Rs 950-980 per MT in FY26, due to elevated power and fuel, and selling costs linked to the ongoing West Asia conflict.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 75116.19, down by 202.20 points or 0.27% after trading in a range of 75102.10 and 75945.79. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 1.30%, Telecom up by 1.26%, Industrials up by 0.99%, Realty up by 0.84% and Power up by 0.68%, while IT down by 0.66%, TECK down by 0.45%, FMCG down by 0.41%, Bankex down by 0.27% and Energy down by 0.05% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Interglobe Aviation up by 3.89%, Bharat Electronics up by 1.35%, Asian Paints up by 0.79%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 0.75% and Power Grid up by 0.72%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 2.03%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.57%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.30%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.12% and Infosys down by 1.11% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, amid high memory demand, India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) President Ashok Chandak has said that memory consumers may witness high memory prices as no significant capacity in expected to come online in the next one and a half years (12-18 months). Further, the price of devices, especially smartphones, as gone up by 20-30% in the last six months. 

He pointed that the demand for memory has exceeded the supply which is driving the prices higher. He noted that the entire memory capacity of memory chip maker Micron in India has been booked due to high demand. Besides, the ongoing crisis in West Asia is impacting the entire economy, and also has an impact on the electronics. He said that the critical raw materials, such as petrochemical plants, diesel, manganese, chemicals, and other gases, have been impacted by the crisis. 

However, Chandak noted that India Semiconductor Mission 2.0 (ISM 2.0) will bring some relief for the country and boost the semiconductor ecosystem, which will reduce dependency on imports. On industry expectations on the incentives under ISM 2.0, he said that it should be more than the previous edition, which was $10 billion.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 23632.35, down by 26.65 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 23624.10 and 23859.90. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Grasim Industries up by 4.73%, Interglobe Aviation up by 3.74%, Apollo Hospital Ent. up by 2.76%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.99% and Max Healthcare Inst up by 1.95%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 1.97%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.45%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.29%, Tata Consumer Products down by 1.23% and Hindustan Unilever down by 1.18% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; KOSPI increased 606.64 points or 7.76% to 7,815.59, Taiwan Weighted added 1347.39 points or 3.26% to 41,368.21 and Nikkei 225 surged 1939.59 points or 3.14% to 61,744.00, while Hang Seng declined 241.12 points or 0.94% to 25,410.00, Shanghai Composite weakened 84.9 points or 2.08% to 4,077.28, Jakarta Composite plunged 213.38 points or 3.38% to 6,105.12 and Straits Times fell 12.23 points or 0.24% to 5,032.68.
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