Benchmark indices closed lower on Thursday led by losses in capital goods, auto and consumer durables shares. Sensex ended 241 points lower at 60,826 and Nifty dipped 72 points to close at 18,127. Market fell for third straight session defying largely positive global market trends, amid the release of minutes of the RBI’s MPC meeting.
Sensex losers
M&M ( 2.61%), Bajaj Finserv (2.55%), Indus Ind Bank(2.26%), Tata Motors (2.12%), L&T (1.70%) , and Tata Steel (1.65%) were among the top losers.
Sensex gainers
Ultratech Cement (0.84%), Infosys (0.75%), Asian Paints (0.65%) , Kotak Bank (0.58%) , Sun Pharma (0.52%) and Bharti Airtel (0.34%) were the top Sensex gainers today.
Market cap of BSE-listed firms fell to Rs 280.51 lakh crore. BSE mid cap and small cap indices fell 195 points and 528 points, respectively. Market breadth was negative with 765 shares closing higher against 2792 stocks falling on BSE. 95 shares were unchanged.
Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial said, “Positive sentiments from the global markets failed to bolster optimism in the domestic indices. The losses were extended in domestic equities owing to the hawkish comments from the RBI’s MPC minutes, which suggested that a premature pause in rate tightening would be a ‘costly policy error at this juncture’. On the other hand, better-than-expected earnings in the US amid recession fears and strong consumer confidence readings lifted global sentiments.”
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Capital goods, auto and consumer durables shares were the top sectoral losers with their BSE indices falling 536 pts, 306 pts, and 308 pts, respectively.
A premature pause in rate hikes at this juncture could be a costly policy error as the battle against inflation is not over, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das opined while voting for a 35 basis points raise in the key lending rate earlier in the month, as per minutes of the MPC meeting released on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 1119 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.
Previous session
Benchmark indices closed lower on Wednesday led by losses in banking, auto and consumer durables shares. Sensex ended 635 points lower at61,067. During the day, the 30-stock index tumbled 764 points to 60,938. Nifty dipped 186 points or 1.01 per cent to end at 18,199.
Global markets
Elsewhere in Asia, equity markets in Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong ended in the green, while Shanghai settled lower. Equity exchanges in Europe were trading in the positive territory in mid-session deals. The US markets had ended higher on Wednesday. International oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.99 per cent to $83.01 per barrel.
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