Sensex and Nifty trimmed early gains and closed lower on Monday as unabated foreign fund outflows hit investor sentiment and losses in index heavyweights Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank. Sensex fell 168.21 points to end at 60,092.97. Of 30 Sensex stocks, 15 ended in the red. Sensex opened higher and touched a high of 60,586.77 in morning session. Later in the day, it fell 297.35 points or 0.49 per cent to 59,963.83. Nifty dipped 61.75 points to close at 17,894.85.
Axis Bank, NTPC, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries and Maruti Suzuki were among the top Sensex losers, falling up to 2.26%. Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, Infosys, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services and Power Grid were among the top Sensex gainers rising up to 3.14%.
Wipro shares closed over 1.27 per cent higher at Rs 398.65 after the announcement of December quarter earnings on Friday. Shares of HDFC Bank lost nearly 1 per cent to Rs 1,585.25 despite the firm reported 19.9 per cent jump in its net profit for the third quarter ended December 2022.
Market breadth was negative with 1691 shares closing higher against 1,910 stocks falling on BSE. 177 shares were unchanged. Top sectoral gainers were IT shares with their BSE index rising 318 pts, to 29,273. Top sectoral losers were metal and banking stocks with their BSE indices falling 209 pts and 272 points, respectively.
Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities said, “Nifty failed to sustain above 18000 and slipped lower before closing around 17900. A ‘dark cloud cover’-like pattern has formed on the daily chart, suggesting a near-term weakness. Support on the lower end is visible at 17850/17750. Below 17,750, Nifty may witness a meaningful correction. On the higher end, resistance is visible at 18000–18100.”
Market cap of BSE-listed firms fell to Rs 280.68 lakh crore. BSE mid cap and small cap indices lost 84 points and 28 points, respectively. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 2,422.39 crore on Friday.
Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said, “In the event of subdued Q3 results, soft budget expectations and cliffing of global rates the market is contemplating with high volatility as these scenarios envelop the future trend.”
Previous session
Benchmark indices ended higher on January 13 led by gains in IT, metal and banking stocks. Sensex rose 303 points to 60,261 and Nifty gained 98 points to 17,956. Titan, Nestle India, Larsen & Toubro, Axis Bank, ITC and Sun Pharma were the top Sensex losers falling up to 1.14%. Tata Steel, IndusInd, Infosys, UltraTech Cement, ICICI Bank, and Bajaj Finance were among the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 2.03%.
Global markets
Elsewhere in Asia, equity markets in Seoul, Shanghai and Hong Kong ended in the green, while Tokyo settled lower. Equity exchanges in Europe were trading mixed in mid-session deals. Markets in the US had ended in the positive territory on Friday. International oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.54 per cent to $84.82 per barrel.
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