Ahead of the weekly options expiry on Thursday, the markets saw a turnover worth Rs 20.9 lakh crore against the six-month average of Rs 15.42 lakh crore.
The Nifty slipped 39.35 points, or 0.35%, to close at 11,278 while the Sensex fell 0.45%, or 171.43 points, to close at 38,193.92.Border tensions with China and tepid global cues brought equities down for the second straight session on Wednesday. The Nifty slipped 39.35 points, or 0.35%, to close at 11,278 while the Sensex fell 0.45%, or 171.43 points, to close at 38,193.92. AstraZeneca pausing its Covid vaccine trials also spooked investors.
Ahead of the weekly options expiry on Thursday, the markets saw a turnover worth Rs 20.9 lakh crore against the six-month average of Rs 15.42 lakh crore. The cash market saw volumes worth Rs 54,281 crore against the six-month average of Rs 53,128 crore.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have remained sellers in September. On Tuesday, they sold equities $139 million and domestic institutional investors bought stocks worth $81.6 million.
Rusmik Oza, executive vice-president – head of fundamental research, Kotak Securities, said: “It is difficult to predict at this point in time till where we will see a correction and where the markets will stabilise. This is because six months down the line fiscal 2022 will begin and that’s the part we have built in for recovery. Though the country has started opening up, activity may not reach pre-Covid-19 level for some time. So, the markets could stabilise somewhere in between 9,500 and 10,000 mark.”
The markets slightly recovered during the last hour of trade, helped by RIL, which rose by 2.68% after it announced that private equity player Silver Lake would be infusing capital into Reliance Retail in exchange for stake in the company.
Banking stocks played spoilsport, with the Nifty Bank declining 2.1%. In its report, Nomura said, “We continue to prefer larger banks, especially Axis Bank and ICICI Bank, where clean-up in the corporate book is largely behind us. Also, with most banks fairly capitalised now post the recent capital raise, we think banks will be a lot more prudent towards restructuring in this cycle against past restructuring cycles where ultimate slippages or write-offs were as high as 70% to 75% in the corporate segment.”
Big losers on the Nifty were State Bank of India, GAIL, Bajaj Finserv, Axis Bank, and IOC, which were down by 4.09%, 3.38%, 2.89%, 2.73% and 2.6%. Major gainers were Tata Steel, Zee Entertainment, Cipla, RIL and Grasim, which were up by 3.57%, 3.06%, 2.73%, 2.68% and 2.39%.
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