Indian equity benchmarks traded lower on Tuesday, extending their losing run for the eighth straight session. The domestic indices were dragged by energy, pharma, technology and metal stocks. Interest rate hike fears, sustained foreign selling and GDP data for the December quarter (Q3), due later in the day, kept investors cautious.
The 30-share BSE Sensex pack fell 326 points or 0.55 per cent to settle at 58,962; while the broader NSE Nifty index moved 89 points or 0.51 per cent down to close at 17,304. Mid and smallcap shares finished on a strong note, with the Nifty Midcap 100 up 0.74 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 rising 0.41 per cent. India VIX climbed 1.04 per cent to 14.02. In contrast, Asian stocks settled mostly higher.
Selling pressure in select index heavyweights such as Reliance Industries and Infosys also dragged the indices lower.
“Global investors’ interest in the equity market is weakening due to the slowdown in the economy, led by high inflation and contractionary monetary policy. Inflows are being diverted to safe assets, and corporate earnings growth is dropping, affecting the performance of the stock market and demanding a downgrade in valuation. The double whammy for India is that it is expensive compared to other EMs, resulting in underperformance among the global market,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
Foreign portfolio investors have so far offloaded Rs 32,518 crore worth of Indian equities in 2023.
Eight out of the 15 sectoral indices on NSE settled in the red. Nifty Oil & Gas, Nifty Pharma, Nifty IT and Nifty Metal underperformed the Nifty index by falling 1.34 per cent, 1.31 per cent, 0.85 per cent and 0.84 per cent, respectively.
Two Adani Group stocks — Adani Total Gas Ltd and Adani Transmission Ltd — tanked 5 per cent, each, to close at their respective one-year low levels.
Among non-Adani Group names, Vedanta dived by 6.58 per cent. Rail Vikas Nigam (RVNL) cracked 6.05 per cent. One97 Communications (Paytm’s parent) and Indiabulls Real Estate fell up to 5.89 per cent. Index heavyweights Reliance and Infosys declined up to 1.99 per cent.
On the flip side, a majority of Adani stocks rebounded today as group’s flagship Adani Enterprises jumped 14.22 per cent.
Also, JSW Energy Ltd gained 12.45 per cent. Elgi Equipements, ZEEL, Uflex, Yes Bank Ltd and Bank of India Ltd surged up to 7.48 per cent. Stocks such as Tube Investments of India, Tata Teleservices and Godfrey Phillips India moved up to 4.98 per cent higher.
Out of a total of 3,590 stocks that traded during the day, 1,725 settled with cuts while 1,727 others ended higher. The rest 138 stocks stayed unchanged.
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