Benchmark indices began the month of October on a negative note, closing lower for the fourth consecutive session this week, dragged by financials and IT.

Market opened on a weak note, tracking global cues and extended losses through the day. Indices managed to recover marginally from early losses during closing hours, as pharma, metals and PSU Bank stocks witnessed buying.

The volatility index, however, dipped 6.48 per cent to close below 18 at 17.21.

The BSE Sensex closed at 58,765.58, down 360.78 points or 0.61 per cent. It hit an intraday high of 58,890.08 and a low of 58,551.14. The Nifty 50 closed at 17,532.05, down 86.10 points or 0.49 per cent. It hit an intraday high of 17,557.15 and a low of 17,452.90.

Breadth remains positive

However, the market breadth remained positive with as many as 1,809 stocks advancing on the BSE, as compared to 1,420 stocks that were declined while 179 remained unchanged. Furthermore, 403 stocks hit the upper circuit as compared to the 134 stocks that were locked in the lower circuit. Besides, 226 stocks touched a 52-week high level and 25 hit a 52-week low.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said, "Despite favourable growth India’s core sector output, which accelerated by 11.6 per cent in August from 9.9 per cent in July, domestic indices were in red reflecting weak global cues and losses in heavyweights.

“High Eurozone inflation at 3.4 per cent in September, slowing global growth and the existing Chinese crisis bolstered global sell-off. The auto sector is hold-on despite weak sales, in anticipation of festival demand, as numbers from major manufacturers showed a fall in September sales mainly due to semiconductor shortage," said Nair.

Mahindra & Mahindra, Coal India, IOC, Ultratech Cement and Dr Reddy were the top gainers on the Nifty 50 while Bajaj Finserv, Maruti, Asian Paints, Bajaj Finance and Bharti Airtel were the top losers.

₹ 1.8 lakh cr lost in week

Binod Modi, Head Strategy at Reliance Securities said, “Benchmark index Nifty fell for the fourth consecutive day today on weak global cues. Further, heavy selling pressure on financials (excluding PSU banks) and IT dragged index. However, buying was seen in pharma, metals and PSU banks. Further, better than expected sales volume for select automobile companies enabled Nifty Auto index to recover from day’s low, while investors preferred to book some amount of profit in IT space ahead of September quarter earnings beginning from next week.”

As per Modi, Nifty corrected around 2 per cent in this week, while around ₹1.8 lakh crore was wiped out from investors’ wealth in the week.

Financials, IT, Realty drag

On the sectoral front, while financials, barring PSU Bank, realty and IT dragged, pharma, consumer durables and metals stocks gained.

Nifty Realty was down 1.51 per cent at closing. Nifty Bank and Nifty Financial Services were down 0.53 per cent and 0.91 per cent, respectively. Nifty Private Bank was down 0.56 per cent. However, Nifty PSU Bank closed 0.71 per cent higher. Nifty IT was down 0.71 per cent.

Meanwhile, Nifty Pharma and Nifty Healthcare Index were up 0.84 per cent and 0.62 per cent, respectively. Nifty Consumer Durables was up 0.75 per cent while Nifty Metal was up 0.49 per cent.

Broader indices

Mid-caps and small-caps also recovered marginally.

Nifty Midcap 50 was down 0.20 per cent at closing while Nifty Smallcap 50 was down 0.26 per cent. The S&P BSE Midcap was down 0.11 per cent while the S&P BSE Smallcap was up 0.48 per cent.

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