Nifty nears 6-month low, Sensex ends 77 points lower

Sensex slumped more than 100 points during the last leg of today's trade while the broader Nifty 50 hit 6-month low to end at 8,074

Benchmark share indices ended lower, amid a volatile trading session, after comments from US Fed Chairman Janet Yellen’s raised the prospects of a rate hike sooner than expected while the ongoing developments post the demonetisation and a weakness in the rupee also dented sentiment.

Sensex dropped over 100 points during the last leg of today’s trade while the broader Nifty 50 hit 6-month low to end at 8,074.

The S&P BSE Sensex settled 77 points down at 26,105 and the Nifty50 eased 6 points to close at 8,074. In the broader market, BSE Midcap rose 0.61% while Small cap closed 0.25% higher. 

Even though the indices were largely range-bound during the day, Sensex rose 120 points as well as fell more than 100 points during the day. Nifty50 also breached its crucial 8,050 level during the day.

“Traders are advised to resort to adequate hedge to negotiate the ongoing volatility. We expect nifty to remain confined with the broad range of 8450-8000 for the coming week,” said Sacchitanand Uttekar, Equity Technical Analyst, Motilal Oswal Securities in a technical note.

"Any uptick in the market is short lived as the participants are shying away from taking fresh positions. The signal from FED on December rate hike has inflicted more pain on the rupee and equities which was already reeling from the demonetization,” Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial said.

Sectors and stocks

Weaker rupee boosted export-oriented sectors like pharma even when the overall market sentiment was not very positive.

Pharma sector was up more than 1% in both the headline indices. Sun Pharma was one of the top gainers on Sensex with 2.58% rise while Cipla, Lupin and Dr Reddy’s gained in the 0.2%-0.6% range.

Meanwhile, the NSE Bank index was down 0.70% with Federal Bank declining as much as 2.67%, ICICI Bank 1.51% and HDFC Bank 1.48%.

BSE Power, oil & gas and Healthcare indices were the top sectoral gainers and rose 1% each, on the other hand, consumer durable and metal indices were the top sectoral losers falling more than 1% each.

NTPC was the top gainer on the Sensex and surged over 4% on the BSE.

Two-wheeler stocks also rose in today’s trade after yesterday’s fall. Hero Moto was up 2.15% while Bajaj Auto rose 1.40%.

Petronet LNG rallied 8% during intra-day but closed in the red even after the company reported robust 82% year on year (YoY) jump in net profit at Rs 460 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2016 (Q2FY17).

Tata Steel, GAIL and ITC were the top losers on the Sensex. 

Shares of sugar companies moved higher by up to 20% on the BSE in otherwise range bound market.

Upper Ganges Sugar & Industries, Oudh Sugar Mills, Mawana Sugars, Kesar Enterprises, Dwarikesh Sugar Industries, Simbhaoli Sugar, Dalmia Bharat Sugar & Industries, Dhampur Sugar Mills and Balrampur Chini Mills were up between 7% and 20% on the BSE. 
 
Rupee hits 68 mark

Rupee crossed the 68 mark against the US dollar after the American currency jumped to almost 13-year high against a basket of major currencies, fueled by expectations that President-elect Donald Trump's policies will lead to higher interest rates.

Global markets

European shares were marginally higher in early trade on Friday, as a stronger dollar underpinned export-oriented stocks such as automakers, though gains were capped by weaker mining stocks.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.2 percent, slightly extending gains made in the previous session.

Asian share markets weakened on Friday as rising US bond yields carried the dollar to a more than 13-1/2 year high against a basket of major currencies, fuelled by expectations that President-elect Donald Trump's policies will lead to higher interest rates.
 
The post-election shift in expectations has left Asian stocks vulnerable to investors potentially rotating funds out of emerging markets to the United States.
 
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.4% to hover just above its four-month low touched earlier in the week and logged its fourth straight week of losses.

 
The dollar's rise, however, was a boon for Japan's exporter-driven Nikkei average, which entered bull market after rising 20% from June low.
 
Overnight, the benchmark S&P 500 index rose 0.5% to within a hair's breadth of its record high, as the prospect of higher interest rates boosted bank stocks and consumer discretionary stocks were helped by favourable economic data and earnings.