The key equity indices continued to trade with deep cuts in mid-morning trade. The Nifty traded below the 17,700 level. Oil & gas stocks declined for third consecutive session. 

At 11:28 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 746.13 points or 1.24% to 59,458.93. The Nifty 50 index lost 208.20 points or 1.16% to 17,683.75. 

Concurrently, The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, surged 12.23% to 16.45. 

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 1.09% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index declined 1.34%. 

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 886 shares rose, and 2434 shares fell. A total of 137 shares were unchanged. 


The Nifty Oil & Gas index tumbled 5.34% to 7,978.20. The index has declined 7.58% in three sessions. 

Adani Total Gas down 19.26%, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation down 6.07%, Bharat Petroleum Corporation down 2.47%,Oil & Natural Gas Corp down 2.39% and Reliance Industries down 1.98% were the top losers. 

Among the other losers were Gujarat Gas down 1.8%, GAIL (India) down 1.78%, Oil India down 1.38%, Indian Oil Corporation down 1.33% and Gujarat State Petronet down 0.66%. 

On the other hand,Indraprastha Gas up 1.67%, Aegis Logistics up 0.88% and Petronet LNG up 0.55% moved up. 

Tata Elxsi rose 0.64%. The design led technology service provider reported a 29% rise in net profit to Rs 194.68 crore on 28.7% increase in revenue from operations to Rs 817.74 crore in Q3 FY23 over Q3 FY22. 

Chennai Petroleum Corporation jumped 4.53%. The company's standalone net profit declined 37.5% to Rs 142.95 crore in Q3 FY23 as against Rs 228.83 crore recorded in Q3 FY22. Net sales surged 61.5% to Rs 16,054.44 in the quarter ended 31 December 2022 from Rs 9,939.29 crore posted in the corresponding quarter previous year.