``Trust & Trade`` With @arbindtiwariT

The Nifty and Sensex traded in the red as of afternoon trade on January 2 as investors to book partial profits after the bull run in the market in 2024. Index heavyweight stocks like ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, Infosys and L&T also faced strong selling which put further pressure on the two benchmarks. However, even as heavyweights roiled under selling pressure, pharma majors like Dr Reddy's, Divi's Labs and Sun Pharma emerged as the top gainers on the Nifty, backed the sector's strong growth outlook.

At noon, the Sensex was down 555.14 points or 0.77 percent at 71,716.80, and the Nifty was down 134.60 points or 0.62 percent at 21,607.30. About 1,342 shares rose, 1,892 fell, while 87 were unchanged.

All sectors except pharma and healthcare traded in the red. Among them, the automobile sector was the worst hit following lower-than-expected sales by most automakers for December. As a result, the Nifty Auto index was down 1.4 percent.

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