The benchmark Sensex lost about 109 points to hit the day’s low of 31,562.25 points. (Image: PTI)
Sensex and Nifty closed lower on Thursday after inching up marginally in the opening trade. The benchmark Sensex lost about 109 points to hit the day’s low of 31,562.25 points while the broader Nifty 50 dipped 33 points to mark the day’s low at 9,881.85 points. BSE Sensex shed 80 points to close at 31,592.03 points and NSE Nifty slipped 26 points to finish at 9,888.7 points. Both the benchmark indices witnessed a dull trade today as stock markets in Hong Kong, China, and South Korea were closed for holidays. The foreign investors’ exit and pessimism about the second quarter earnings continued to hurt the market sentiments as first quarter had seen a lower-than-expected earnings in most of the sectors.
“Markets ended the session flat for the day with nifty closing under 9900 again, there is significant resistance around the 9950 levels and support seems to be coming in around the 9750 level. FIIs (foreign institutional investors) continue to be net sellers and the retail sentiment seems to overbearingly bullish at this juncture with DIIs (domestic institutional investors) constantly pumping in fresh money, slowing GDP and the long-term effects of GST and demonetization are yet to be fully factored in. Aurobindo Pharma and ACC were the best-performing stocks for the session whereas Tech Mahindra and Infratel were the weakest performers. We continue to hold a short-term bearish outlook on the market and would hold shorts below 9950 levels,” said Nikhil Kamath, Co-Founder and Head of Trading, Zerodha.
Shares of Power Grid (down 1.91%), ICICI Bank (down 1.45%), Hero MotoCorp (down 1.32%), Bajaj Auto (down 0.94%), and Axis Bank (down 0.92%) were the biggest losers on Sensex while NTPC (up 1.67%), Coal India (up 1.11%), M&M (up 0.85%), and Reliance Industries (up 0.62%) helped to trim the losses. The stock of heavyweight companies such as ICICI Bank, HDFC, and ITC contributed the most to the index down surge. Collectively these three stocks alone washed off about 69 points out of the 80-points slump in the 30-share barometer Sensex while that of HDFC Bank and Reliance Industries managed to offset some loss.
The sectoral indices of NSE settled mixed with Nifty Bank, Nifty Auto, Nifty Fin Service, Nifty FMCG, Nifty IT, Nifty PSU Bank, Nifty PVT Bank closing in red with losses up to 0.44% while Nifty Media, Nifty Metal, Nifty Pharma, and Nifty Realty ended in green.
Share outflow from foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) continued, as yesterday only they sold shares worth Rs 632.14 crore while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares Rs 584.88 crore, as per the provisional data from exchanges.
