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Benchmark indices continued their fall for the third consecutive day on Thursday amid volatility.
Though indices opened on a positive note, they succumbed to selling pressure from institutions across multiple counters. Benchmarks were dragged by heavyweights such as Reliance, IT and metal stocks. Indices managed to recover marginally during closing hours, led by financials and a sharp rebound in auto stocks.
The BSE Sensex closed at 60,923.50, down 336.46 points or 0.55 per cent. It hit an intraday high of 61,621.20 and a low of 60,485.65. The Nifty 50 closed at 18,178.10, down 88.50 points or 0.48 per cent. It hit an intraday high of 18,384.20 and a low of 18,048.00.
Market breadth negative
The market breadth continued to remain in favour of the decliners with 1,694 stocks declining on the BSE, 1,589 advancing and 143 remaining unchanged. Furthermore, 269 stocks hit the lower circuit as compared to the 262 stocks that were locked in the upper circuit. Besides, 167 stocks touched a 52-week high level and 21 touched a 52-week low.
Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said, "sell-off continued due to weak Q2 results, bearish global market and profit booking in IT, metal and realty stocks. However, the banking index, especially PSBs moved with confidence on the expectation of good quarterly earnings. High volatility forced foreign and domestic institutional investors to remain net sellers."
Kotak Bank, Tata Motors, Grasim, HDFC and BPCL were the top gainers on the Nifty 50 while Asian Paints, Hindalco, Infosys, Reliance and TCS were the top losers.
Narendra Solanki, Head- Equity Research (Fundamental), Anand Rathi Shares & Stock Brokers, said, “Indian markets opened in green but couldn't hold on to early gains and drifted lower mirroring Asian market peers which traded mostly in red as investors monitored and tracked China property woes.”
During the afternoon session, sentiment got hit as investors were concerned over high oil prices that may hurt the nascent and fragile global economic recovery, he said.
Financials in focus
On the sectoral front, most of the indices closed in the red. However, financials and auto managed to retain gains even as IT, metals, realty and consumer durables remained under selling pressure.
Nifty IT was down 2.53 per cent at closing while Nifty Metal was down 1.77 per cent. Nifty Consumer Durables was down 1.77 per cent while Nifty Realty was down 1.41 per cent.
Meanwhile, Nifty Bank was up 1.30 per cent while Nifty Financial Services was up 1.22 per cent. Nifty Private Bank and Nifty Public Bank closed 1.27 per cent and 2.73 per cent higher, respectively. Nifty Auto was up 0.56 per cent.
Broader indices
The broader market also continued to witness selling pressure with the Nifty Midcap 50 slipping 0.29 per cent and the Nifty Smallcap 50 declining 0.74 per cent. The S&P BSE Midcap was down 0.38 per cent while the S&P BSE Smallcap was down 0.69 per cent.
Though, the volatility index softened 1.51 per cent, it still closed above the psychological 18-mark at 18.04.
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