The rising number of Covid-19 cases continue to affect the investor sentiment. On Wednesday, a day before the March month derivative expiry, the Sensex fell 1.71 per cent, or 871 points, to close at 49,180. The Nifty 50 declined 1.79 per cent, or 265 points, at 14,549.

FPIs positive in March

The BSE Sensex and the Nifty 50 have been under selling pressure from domestic investors even though foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have remained net buyers for the whole of March. However, on Wednesday, FPIs sold shares worth ₹1,951 crore while DIIs turned buyers worth ₹621.81 crore.

Even though the force of FPI buying in Indian stock markets is not too exciting compared to the same last month, they have still been net purchasers of stocks worth ₹5,595 crore in the cash segment in March so far. Comparatively, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) have sold stocks worth ₹3,028 crore in the cash segment. In the derivatives, FPIs have purchased index futures worth ₹1,446 crore, indicating that they are still long in this segment. In the stock futures too, FPIs have been net buyers at ₹894 crore.

“The near-term structure of the markets has turned weak but any correction is only a temporary pull back. The bull run that started in March 2020 is still intact and Sensex and Nifty may be much higher by the end of the year,” said Rohit Srivastava, Strategist, Indiacharts.

In the global markets, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside of Japan fell 1.3 per cent. Japan’s Nikkei was down 2 per cent while South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.4 per cent. Chinese shares were down for a second day with the blue-chip CSI300 index down 1.65 per cent.

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