Sensex falls 145 points, Nifty holds 17,300 in volatile session

Indian market ended lower a day after the stellar rally despite positive global cues.Sensex closed 145 points lower at 57,996 and Nifty lost 30 points to end at 17,322. NTPC, SBI and Ultratech Cement were the top Sensex losers, falling up to 1.63%.  Of 30 Sensex stocks, 22 ended lower.

Bharti Airtel, HDFC, M&M and Dr Reddy's were the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 1.41%.

BSE mid cap and small cap indices fell 8 points and rose 117 points, respectively.

On the sectoral front, capital goods and banking stocks led the losses today with their BSE indices falling 136 points and 231 points, respectively.

Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities said, "Nifty ran into selling pressure at higher levels on a day when most other Asian indices were doing well. Advance decline ratio remained in the positive suggesting return of trader interest in the broad markets. High crude oil prices, outcome of state elections and fears of rate hikes in India are raising concerns among FPIs who are choosing to take advantage of rallies to lighten their position. 17491-17554 could continue to be a resistance for the Nifty while 17214 could be the support."

The market breadth was positive with 2,028 shares ending higher against 1,325 stocks in the red. 100 shares were unchanged.

Market cap of BSE-listed firms stood at Rs 262.06 lakh crore against Rs 261.81 lakh crore in the previous session.

On Tuesday, Indian equity market staged a strong rebound, erasing almost all losses from the previous session. Global market sentiment turned positive amid signs of easing tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

Sensex ended 1,736 points higher at 58,142 and Nifty rose 509 points to 17,352.

The  30-stock index logged its biggest single day rally in one year.

Bajaj Finance, SBI, Bajaj Finserv, L&T and Titan were the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 5.13%. All Sensex stocks ended in the green.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital market, as they sold shares worth Rs 2,298 crore and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) lapped up shares worth Rs 4,411 crore, as per provisional data available on NSE on Tuesday.

Global markets

Global indices rose on Wednesday, bolstered by hopes that a diplomatic solution might avert a Russian invasion of Ukraine. France's CAC 40 edged up 0.7% in early trading to 7,030.39. Germany's DAX rose 0.8% to 15,540.97. Britain's FTSE 100 gained nearly 0.2% to 7,621.99. The future for the Dow industrials was 0.3% higher at 34,996.00. The S&P 500 future rose 0.3% to 4,475.7

In Asia, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped 2.2% to finish at 27,460.40. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.1% to 7,284.90. South Korea's Kospi surged 2.0% to 2,729.68. Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 1.5% to 24,718.90, while the Shanghai Composite gained 0.6% to 3,465.83.