Sensex slips below 60K, down 634 pts; Nifty ends below 17,800 

Indian equities continued to fall for the third consecutive session as bears maintained their grip on the market with benchmark indices closing over 1 per cent lower on Thursday.

Market opened on a weak note amid mixed global cues as rising treasury yield and inflation concerns continued to put pressure on global markets. Benchmark indices closed lower, witnessing selling pressure across multiple counters. Losses in heavyweights such as HDFC further dragged the market.

The BSE Sensex slipped below 60,000, closing at 59,464.62, down 634.20 points or 1.06 per cent. It recorded an intraday high of 60,045.48 and a low of 59,068.31. The Nifty 50 closed at 17,757.00, down 181.40 points or 1.01 per cent. It recorded an intraday high of 17,943.70 and a low of 17,648.45.

Breadth turns positive

The market breadth, however, turned positive with 1,745 stocks advancing on the BSE as against 1,663 that declined while 76 remained unchanged. Furthermore, 421 stocks hit the upper circuit as compared to the 319 stocks that were locked in the lower circuit. Besides, 342 stocks touched a 52-week high level and 15 touched a 52-week low.

According to experts, global inflation and the expected rate hikes will be major headwinds for markets in the near term. Rising crude oil price has also been weighing on investor sentiments. 

Mitul Shah, Head Of Research at Reliance Securities said, “Domestic equities closed lower following weak global indications due to the possibility of Fed raising interest rates in the near-term. US equities ended sharply lower after a diverse set of corporate earnings, the market continued to worry about higher US Treasury yields and the Federal Reserve tightening monetary policy.”

“Investors are looking to next week’s Fed policy meeting for more clarity on central bankers’ plans to rein in inflation. Data last week showed US consumer prices increased solidly in December,” said Shah.

Parth Nyati, Founder, Tradingo said, “The Indian equity market is showing weakness for the third day in a row on the back of FIIs’ selling, rising US bond yields, and concerns of inflation. However, this is just a correction that should be taken as a buying opportunity.”

Powergrid, Bharti Airtel, Grasim, JSW Steel and Tata Consumer were the top gainers on the Nifty 50 while Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Auto, Divi’s Lab, Infosys and TCS were the top losers.

Metals shine

On the sectoral front, all indices except Nifty Metal and Nifty realty closed in the red. IT, auto, FMCG, pharma and oil & gas recorded higher losses.

Nifty Metal closed 0.52 per cent higher while Nifty Realty was up 0.23 per cent.

Meanwhile, Nifty IT and Nifty Pharma each closed 1.66 per cent lower, each. Nifty Healthcare Index was down 1.32 per cent Nifty FMCG and Nifty Consumer Durables were down 1.15 per cent and 0.66 per cent, respectively. Nifty Oil & Gas was down 0.90 per cent. Nifty Auto was down 0.84 per cent. Nifty Financial Services and Nifty Bank closed 0.72 per cent and 0.50 per cent lower, respectively. 

Broader indices 

Broader market also faced pressure.

Nifty Midcap 50 was down 0.28 per cent while Nifty Smallcap 50 was down 0.68 per cent at closing. The S&P BSE Midcap was down 0.07 per cent while the S&P BSE Smallcap was up 0.05 per cent.

The volatility index softened 0.15 per cent to 17.79.

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