Markets extend losses after choppy session, FII sell-off continues

Benchmarks ended with losses for a seventh straight session on Wednesday as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) left the policy rate unchanged but lowered growth projection for the fiscal year.
 
The market fell despite the US markets posting a sharp rebound and the European markets trading a per cent higher. The fall, however, was relatively muted compared to previous session.
 
The BSE Sensex fell over 113 points, or 0.33 per cent, to finish at 34,082.71, while the broader NSE Nifty shed 21.55 points, or 0.21 per cent, to 10,476.70.
 
Stocks saw high volatility with the benchmark Sensex swinging 658 points, touching an intra-day high of 34,666 and a low of 34,008. Intra-day, the Nifty 50 index shuttled between 10,614 and 10,446.40.
 
“As expected, the RBI continued to maintain the neutral stance awaiting more upcoming domestic and global macro data, and seeing some sanity in the bond market. But prevailing inflationary pressure and fiscal slippage may lead to a hawkish view in the near future. The market reacted quite negatively while the Bank Nifty underperformed owing to deferment in credit cycle due to subdued capacity utilisation in the economy and hardening bond yield,” said Vinod Nair, head of research, Geojit Financial Services.
 

A rally in select rate-sensitive realty and auto counters helped both the key indices recover from their day’s lows.
 
Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors sold shares worth Rs 10.22 billion on Wednesday, taking their two-day selling tally to Rs 34 billion. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth Rs 4.6 billion, according to provisional data released by the bourses.
 
In sectoral terms, the banking index dipped 0.43 per cent. Indices such as telecom, teck, IT, and capital goods also declined, falling up to 1.12 per cent. In contrast, the broader markets were back in better shape, with the small-cap index rising 1.95 per cent and the mid-cap index inching up by 0.43 per cent.
 
Oil & gas, realty, PSU, infrastructure, health care, consumer durables, power, FMCG, and metal turned positive.
 
Major losers were L&T, TCS, Bharti Airtel, Wipro, Hindustan Unilever, M&M, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Steel, Sun Pharma, NTPC, and HDFC Ltd.
 
In the Asian region, Japan’s Nikkei ended 0.16 per cent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.89 per cent.
 
China’s Shanghai Index, too, fell 1.82 per cent.
 
The European markets were trading in the positive terrain in their early deals after the recent global markets turmoil.
 
Frankfurt’s DAX 30 was up 0.66 per cent, while Paris CAC 40 gained 0.68 per cent in their early deals. London’s FTSE, too, advanced 0.55 per cent. 

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(With inputs from bureau)