The market snapped its three-day winning streak with the Sensex shedding 216 points to close at 34,949 on Tuesday, while NSE Nifty settled at 10,633, down 55 points. A total of 34 stocks on the 50-scrip Nifty index ended in the negative zone. Apart from ICICI Bank, top laggards on the Nifty 50 included SBI, Bajaj Finserv, UPL and Yes Bank, settling with losses of between 1.9 per cent and 3.5 per cent. ICICI Bank, which ended more than 3 per cent lower, led the declines in banking stocks. Besides, losses in pharmaceutical stocks also dragged the markets lower.
Technical view
Sameet Chavan, chief analyst, technical and derivatives, Angel Broking, said: “Three days of short covering rally was followed by a flat open (with a positive bias) despite majority of global peers indicating a tepid start. Subsequently, index consolidated in a range for a while and then gained some momentum above 10,700. However, a strong bout of selling at higher levels dragged the index lower to eventually close with a cut of half a per cent from the previous close.
Looking at Tuesday’s high, it almost coincides with resistance zone of 10,720–10,740. The way index corrected in the second half, it certainly does not augur well for the bulls. It would be important to see how Nifty behaves around 10,616–10,600 levels. In case of a sustainable slide below these crucial intraday points, we may see this corrective move getting extended towards 10,560–10,535 levels. On the higher side, a move beyond 10,650 would bring back some optimism in the market. We continue to see 10,720–10,740 as strong hurdles for a time being. We can expect index gyrating within a range of 10,740–10,600.”
Market view
VK Sharma, head private client group & capital market strategy at HDFC Securities, said: “Nifty declined by 0.5 per cent to 10,633 while bank Nifty fell by 375 points of 1.4 per cent in Tuesday’s trade. Barring IT, hardly any sectors could manage to keep its head above the water. Broader markets were buoyant and Mid-Cap and Small-Cap index outperformed the benchmark indices. Banking stocks like ICICI Bank and SBI were under pressure in today’s trade. Support for the Nifty comes in at 10,567.
—Ashwin Punnen
Fortis Healthcare on Tuesday initiated a fresh time-bound bidding process for its sale after terminating the offer made by the Munjal-Burman combine, in yet another twist in the race for the cash-s
Reliance Communications (RCom) on Tuesday offered to pay Rs 500 crore to Ericsson India to settle a dispute on unpaid dues of over Rs 1,150 crore.
After a short-lived recovery, the rupee on Tuesday once again turned shaky and lost ground against the US currency, falling by a steep 43 paise to end at 67.86 due to heavy month-end dollar demand
Scrap gold sales fell 33 per cent in FY18 as the quantum of collateralised gold auctioned by gold loan companies came down, according to precious metals agency GFMS.