Is there a lack of buying conviction at the current levels?

Welcome to ETMarkets Watch, the show about stocks, market trends and money-making ideas. I am Bhaskar Dutta and here are the top headlines at this hour.

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Let us take a quick glance at what happened on Dalal Street today.

Domestic equity markets tumbled for the second straight day as the deepening geopolitical conflict in Ukraine made traders increasingly jittery.

After starting the day on a strong note, benchmark indices succumbed to selling pressure by the end of trade as a relentless rise in crude oil prices accentuated concerns about India’s trade deficit and inflation, given the country’s import dependence on the commodity.

Weakness in financial, FMCG and consumer durables stocks offset the buying interest in metals and IT stocks, dragging indices lower. The selloff rendered investors poorer by Rs 34,785.40 crore.

The BSE barometer climbed 572 points in the course of the day, coming within touching distance of the 56,000 mark before surrendering all gains to end 366 points lower. The index has dropped 572 points over the last seven sessions.

Its broader peer the Nifty50 added on close to 300 points earlier in the day, almost touching the 16,800 mark before erasing gains and ending 107.90 points lower. The index has given up 250.10 points over the last seven days.

Broader markets were mixed, with the BSE smallcap index gaining 0.4 per cent while the midcap index shed a per cent. Fear gauge India VIX lost 3.7 per cent to end below the 29 level.

On the 30-pack BSE Sensex, 19 stocks ended lower, with shares of Ultratech Cement losing 6.5 per cent to make it the worst performer of the day.

Asian Paints shed 5.2 per cent, while Dr Reddy’s gave up 3.5 per cent. Maruti, Hindustan Unilever, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finserv and Nestle all lost more than 2 per cent each, while M&M and L&T fell 1.8 per cent each.

Power Grid led the gainers with a 3 per cent rise followed by Wipro, Tech Mahindra and HCL Tech, each of which added on more than 2 per cent.

As many as 26 stocks tested their 52-week highs during the session, whereas 20 tested their 52-week lows.

We have Vinod Nair from Geojit Financial Services to share his views on the action and the road ahead:

Welcome to the show sir:
1. Markets were unable to sustain early gains today. Is there a lack of buying conviction at the current levels?
2. The selling by FIIs continues unabated. Will the domestic buying be able to match the overseas outflows?

We also caught up with Sameet Chavhan of Angel One to decode the technical charts for you.
1. The Nifty50 settled below the 16,500 level today. What do the technical charts suggest about it?
2. Nifty Bank saw a deeper decline than the Nifty for the second straight day. What is your outlook?

Asian markets mostly settled with decent gains for the day. Major European markets were trading with cuts in the first few hours of trade. Also, US stock futures were down towards a negative start to US equities later in the day.

That’s all for now. Do check out ETMarkets.com for all the news, market analysis, investment strategies and dozens of stock recommendations. Enjoy your evening. Bye Bye!