Sensex down 366 points at closing, Nifty slips below 16,500

Benchmark indices closed lower amid volatility on Thursday. 

Market began on a positive note, tracking positive cues from the Asian markets despite escalating the Russia-Ukraine crisis. However, indices slipped into losses, erasing all early gains to close lower, dragged by financials, auto and FMCG stocks. 

The BSE Sensex closed at 55,102.68, down 366.22 points or 0.66 per cent. It recorded an intraday high of 55,996.62 and a low of 54,931.48. The Nifty 50 closed at 16,498.05, down 107.90 points or 0.65 per cent, near the day’s low of 16,442.95. It recorded an intraday high of 16,768.95.

Market breadth positive

The market breadth was positive with 2,035 stocks advancing on the BSE as against 1,286 that declined while 119 remained unchanged. Furthermore, 432 stocks hit the upper circuit as compared to the 170 stocks that were locked in the lower circuit. Besides, 85 stocks touched a 52-week high level and 32 touched a 52-week low.

The Indian equities market is likely to continue facing headwinds from rising crude prices and inflation concerns in the near term with the Russia-Ukraine crisis keeping investor sentiments in check, as per experts. Further, consistent FII selling has also been weighing on market sentiments. 

Mitul Shah, Head Of Research at Reliance Securities said, “Domestic equity markets closed lower as the geopolitical scenario continues to worsens due to the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Soaring crude prices due to supply disruptions from Russian sanctions have further escalated the situation.”

According to Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, “The subdued trend of the domestic market continued however the level of volatility is reducing. Today large caps were more muted, dragged by FIIs selling, compared to the broad market. The release of strategic reserves of oil in India & abroad along with increased output from OPEC is expected to ease crude prices in the future. Additionally, the Indian market will look at the state election exit poll data while the global market on war developments, BoE, and Fed policy meeting status from next week.”

ONGC, UPL, Powergrid, Wipro and Tech Mahindra were the top gainers on the Nifty 50 while Ultratech Cement, HDFC Life, Asian Paints, Shree Cement and Eicher Motor were the top losers. 

Oil & Gas, IT, metals gain

On the sectoral front, while financials, auto and FMCG dragged, IT, metals and oil & gas stocks gained.

Nifty Oil & Gas recorded the highest gains, closing 1.46 per cent higher. Nifty IT and Nifty Metal also closed over 1 per cent higher, each.

Meanwhile, Nifty Auto was down over 2 per cent. Nifty Bank, Nifty Financial Services, Nifty Private Bank and Nifty Consumer Durables were each down over 1 per cent. Nifty FMCG and Nifty PSU Bank each closed nearly 1 per cent lower. 

Midcaps under pressure

As for the broader market, midcaps faced pressure while smallcaps managed to retain gains.

Nifty Midcap 50 was down 0.80 per cent at closing while Nifty Smallcap 50 was up 0.38 per cent. The S&P BSE Midcap was down 0.64 per cent while the S&P BSE Smallcap was up 0.35 per cent.

The volatility index softened 3.68 per cent to 28.16.

Sahaj Agrawal, Head of Research- Derivatives at Kotak Securities said, “Volatility continues to remain elevated in the markets - in line with volatility seen across global markets.”

From a technical perspective, according to Agarwal, “For the March series, momentum support level is seen at 16350; Resistance is placed at 16800-17000 levels. Bank nifty is expected to underperform in the near term until strong reversal is seen - midcap stocks also remain under pressure.”

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