Sensex Nifty tank on weaker global cues; financials drags while power stocks surge

Once again midcap and smallcap stocks were seen gaining, outperforming benchmark indices.

Sensex and Nifty put the brakes on the winning run to tank nearly 400 points on Thursday, following weaker global cues. S&P BSE Sensex ended lower by 394 points or 1.02% while the Nifty 50 ended lower at 11,312. Only 5 stocks ended with gains on BSE Sensex. Domestic equity benchmarks under-performed broader markets as they continued to trade with losses for the entire day and ended close to the day’s low. Volatility was gained over 4% on Thursday after slipping steadily for 3 consecutive days. Global stocks markets slipped as the US Fed’s commentary showed that it was casting doubt over a swift economic recovery. 

Global cues: Stock markets in Asia ended deep in red on Thursday. Shanghai Composite was down over 1%, followed by Hang Seng. KOSDAQ, KOSPI dived over 3% each. ““Indian indices along with global markets traded in the red today, on the back of US Fed reserve’s grim July meeting minutes. The Fed reserve cast doubts on the nascent recovery of the labor market seen in the previous months and its sustainability. Markets, globally, were banking on expectations of steady recovery in the major economies and the consequent return to normalcy for businesses,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Broader markets outperform: Once again midcap and smallcap stocks were seen gaining, outperforming benchmark indices. Nifty Midcap 50 was up over 0.90% while Nifty smallcap 50 was up 0.72%. “Small & Midcap names though continued their upward march today as HNI and Retail Investors evinced keen interest in many such stocks,” said S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP Securities.

Gainers: NTPC, ONGC, Powergrid, and Tata Steel were the gainers on Sensex. Among BSE Midcap constituents Varroc Engineering jumped over 17%, Adani Transmission was up 10%. On the smallcap index Apcotex Industries was up 20%, followed by IGPL and Aarti Drugs.

Financials drag: HDFC, Axis Bank, among other financial institutions were the top drags on Sensex. All financial stocks ended in the red. The Nifty Bank index slipped 1.29% while Nifty Private Bank index slipped 1.31%.

Technical talk: “The support of 11200 has been respected upon the closing of the Nifty, hence I would not advocate closing long positions or initiating short positions. We would need to study market movements over the next couple of days in order to detect its trend. The bias is still on the upside and we could continue waiting for a 11500 target. That target would get negated only if 11100-11200 breaks upon closing,” said Manish Hathiramani, Index Trader and Technical Analyst, Deen Dayal Investments.