Sensex Sheds 528 Points, Nifty At 23,526; IT, Financials Shares Falls – News18
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Stock markets opened lower today, tracking weakness in Asian markets
Sensex Today
Equity indices, BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50, closed lower on Thursday. The 30-share Sensex dropped 528.28 points, or 0.68%, ending at 77,620.21. The index traded between 78,206.21 and 77,542.92 during the day.
Similarly, the NSE Nifty50 fell by 162.45 points, or 0.69%, to close at 23,526.50. The Nifty50’s intraday high was 23,689.50, while its low stood at 23,503.05.
The market was dominated by the bears, with 34 out of the 50 Nifty50 stocks closing in the red. The biggest losers included Shriram Finance, ONGC, Coal India, BPCL, and Tata Steel, which saw declines of up to 2.59%. On the other hand, Bajaj Auto, Nestle India, Hindustan Unilever, Britannia Industries, and Mahindra & Mahindra were among the 16 stocks that ended in the green, with gains of up to 2.11%.
Broader markets followed the benchmarks’ downward trend, with the Nifty Smallcap100 and Nifty Midcap100 indices declining by 0.93% and 1.35%, respectively.
All sectors closed in the red, except for the Nifty FMCG index. Other sectors, such as IT, PSU Bank, financial services, consumer durables, and OMCs, fell by more than 1% each. The Nifty Realty index saw the largest decline, down by 2.73%.
Market View | Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services
So far in January FIIs have sold equity for Rs 10,419 crore. With the dollar index at 109 and the 10-year bond yield at 4.67 per cent, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) are likely to continue with their selling strategy putting pressure on the market in the near-term.
With the Q3 results season starting from today there will be market reaction to results. The results of TCS will give an indication of what is in store for the IT sector. The strength of the U.S. economy and the depreciation of rupee will be tailwinds for the IT sector.
Premium segments like hotels, jewellery, and automobiles catering to the premium market and airlines are likely to report good numbers. Expectations from President Trump’s policy decisions and the Indian Union budget proposals will keep the market volatile in the coming days.
Global Cues
Asia-Pacific markets were down on Thursday, following a volatile session on Wall Street the previous day. The decline came after the release of the Federal Reserve’s meeting minutes, which indicated that interest rates may remain high for a longer period due to persistent inflation.
The minutes revealed concerns among Federal Reserve officials about inflation, as well as potential impacts from President-elect Donald Trump’s policies, which contributed to a more cautious approach on interest rate cuts. The report mentioned at least four times how changes in immigration and trade policies could affect the U.S. economy, though Trump was not explicitly named.
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted to reduce the central bank’s benchmark borrowing rate to a target range of 4.25-4.5%, but lowered its forecast for 2025 rate cuts, from four to two.
In China, consumer prices in December rose by 0.1% year-on-year, in line with expectations, but at a slower pace than the previous month, raising concerns about deflation. China’s producer price inflation fell by 2.3% year-on-year in December, marking the 27th consecutive month of decline. The low inflation indicates continued weak domestic demand, raising fears of further deflation.
As a result, major Asian indices were down: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.2%, China’s Shanghai Composite and Australia’s ASX200 dropped 0.6% each, and Japan’s Nikkei fell by 0.8%.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 gained 0.16%, closing at 5,918.25. The Dow added 0.25%, finishing at 42,635.20, while the Nasdaq Composite remained almost flat, closing at 19,478.88.
