Sensex, Nifty Dragged Lower By HUL

On Thursday, BSE's Sensex opened slightly changed at 31,677 while the NSE Nifty 50 opened 0.4 percent lower at 9,234. The benchmark indices were however soon dragged lower by Hindustan Unilever (HUL), Kotak Mahindra Bank and ONGC. HCL Tech, Sun Pharma and Maruti Suzuki were the top gainers.

HUL shares fell as much as 5.4 percent to Rs 1,902. A Bloomberg report said that 9 crore shares of the company exchanged hands in six large trades.

On Wednesday, British multinational pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline Plc said that it will be selling 5.69 percent stake in Hindustan Unilever (HUL) via block deals at a price band of Rs 1,850-1,950 per share starting 7 May. This deal was valued around $3.2-3.4 billion.

On the other hand, shares of HCL Technologies gained as much as 4.5 percent to Rs 542.4 and was among the top gainers on Nifty 50 after the company reported Q4 net profit

As for the global markets, USA's S&P 500 and the Dow closed lower on Wednesday as data showed that private employers in the US laid off 20 million workers in April, underscoring the economic fallout of the coronavirus outbreak.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 218.45 points or 0.91 percent to 23,664.64, the S&P 500 declined 20.02 points, or 0.70 pecent, to 2,848.42 but Nasdaq Composite added 45.27 points or 0.51 percent to close at 8,854.39.

Asian stocks were trading slightly lower after a private survey showed China's services sector slumping in April. Japanese Nikkei 225 dipped 0.21 percent, Topix fell 0.51 percent, South Korea's Kospi declined 0.29 percent, Shanghai composite was down 0.24 percent while the Shenzhen composite added 0.10 percent.

Growing worries about fall in demand sent oil prices lower.