Indian equity market ended lower on Wednesday snapping a four-day rally amid a mixed trend in global equity markets. Despite a positive start, Sensex erased all the gains and closed 215.26 points or 0.35 per cent lower at 60,906.09. During the day, the index slipped 326.96 points or 0.53 per cent to 60,794.39. Nifty fell 62.55 points or 0.34 per cent to settle at 18,082.85.
Bharti Airtel (3.05 per cent) , Maruti (2.40 %), Hindustan Unilever (1.31 percent), Infosys (1.29 %) and HCL Technologies (1.26 %) were among the top Sensex losers. Sun Pharma (1.81 percent), ITC (1.43%), Tech Mahindra (0.94%) , Dr Reddy’s (0.35% ) and Reliance Industries (0.62 %) were among the top gainers.
Of 30 Sensex stocks, 21 ended in the red.
Prashanth Tapse – Research Analyst, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities said, “Markets wavered in today’s trade as investors reassessed the outlook for US growth and waited anxiously for the FOMC meeting outcome. The Fed is poised to hike interest rates by 75 bps for the fourth time while a less hawkish stance could simply see the bear market dead. Technically speaking, Nifty has support at 17677.”
Midcap and small cap indices on BSE slipped 31 points and gained 65 points, respectively. Auto, banking and consumer durables shares were the top sectoral losers with their BSE indices falling 231 points, 171 pts and 172 points, respectively.
Market breadth was positive with 1,799 stocks ending higher against 1,668 stocks falling on BSE. 142 shares were unchanged. Market cap of BSE-listed firms fell to Rs 281.60 lakh crore.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers on Tuesday as they bought shares worth Rs 2,609.94 crore, as per exchange data.
Previous session
The Indian equity market ended higher for the fourth straight session on Tuesday powered by a rally in Asian and European markets amid continuous foreign fund inflows. Sensex climbed 374.76 points to end at 61,121.35. During the day, the 30-stock index zoomed 543.14 points to 61,289.73. Nifty advanced 133.20 points to close at 18,145.40. NTPC (5%) , PowerGrid (3.07 %) , Dr Reddy’s (2.39%) , Infosys (2.27%) and Tata Consultancy Services (2.08%) were the top Sensex gainers.
Global markets
Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Seoul, Shanghai and Hong Kong ended higher, while Tokyo settled lower. Stock exchanges in Europe were trading on a mixed note in mid-session deals. Wall Street had ended in negative territory on Tuesday. International oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.17 per cent higher at $94.81 per barrel.