Sensex ends 150 points lower amid volatility, Nifty below 15,800

The benchmark indices closed lower amid volatility on Wednesday. The market started off on a negative note amid weak global cues and extended losses through the day, dragged by financials, IT and FMCG stocks. 

The BSE Sensex closed at 53,026.97, down 150.48 points or 0.28 per cent. It recorded an intraday high of 53,244.84 and a low of 52,612.68. The Nifty 50 closed at 15,799.10, down 51.10 points or 0.32 per cent. It recorded an intraday high of 15,861.60 and a low of 15,687.80.

Breadth favours decliners

The market breadth turned in favour of the decliners with 1,781 stocks declining on the BSE against 1,521 advanced while 148 remained unchanged. Furthermore, nine stocks hit the upper circuit as compared to the three stocks that were locked in the lower circuit. Besides, 67 stocks touched a 52-week high level and 54 touched a 52-week low.

Weakening rupee and inflation concerns have added to the negative sentiment in the market. Volatility is expected to continue ahead of the F&O settlement on Thursday.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said, “Consumer confidence is declining rapidly due to the uncontrolled and constant rise in inflation.”

“India had to bear the double whammy effect of a dampening global equity market and rising crude prices as major suppliers like Saudi are unable to boost the output in the short-term. However, the domestic market was able to recover most of the losses due to the strong movement of index heavyweights, PSUs, Metals and Oil & Gas stocks before slipping some gains by the end of the day due to the volatile global market,” said Nair. 

Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities Ltd said, “With fundamentals remaining weak, the upward bias is unlikely to sustain for long. As the European markets faltered in their morning trades, all the modest gains got erased in late selling pressure. With crude oil prices once again rising and the rupee continuing to struggle against the dollar, investors are playing safe and trimming their exposure to equities at regular intervals.”

ONGC, NTPC, Reliance, Sun Pharma and Coal India were the top gainers on the Nifty 50 while HDFC, Hindustan Unilever, Apollo Hospitals, Axis Bank and Tata Consumer were the top losers. 

Oil & Gas in focus 

Among the sectoral indices, all indices except Nifty Oil & Gas, Nifty Metal, Nifty Auto and Nifty Realty closed in the red with financials, IT and FMCG recording higher losses.

Nifty Oil & Gas closed over 1 per cent higher.

Meanwhile, the Nifty Bank, Nifty Private Bank, Nifty IT and Nifty FMCG were down over 1 per cent each.  Nifty Financial Services and Nifty PSU Bank each closed nearly 1 per cent lower. 

Midcaps under pressure 

Broader indices also closed in the red. Nifty Midcap 50 was down 0.53 per cent while Nifty Smallcap 50 was down 0.67 per cent. The S&P BSE Midcap was down 0.70 per cent while the S&P BSE Smallcap was down 0.18 per cent.

The volatility index rose 2.09 per cent to 21.90.

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