Today, the benchmark indices broke the 8 day gaining streak and ended lower, with Nifty below 18700.
The Sensex was down 415.69 points or 0.66% at 62868.50, and the Nifty was down 116.40 points or 0.62% at 18696.10.
About 1,995 shares have advanced, 1,376 shares declined, and 137 shares are unchanged.
Apollo Hospitals, Tech Mahindra, Dr Reddy' Laboratories, Tata Steel, and Grasim Industries were among the major gainers on Nifty while the major losers were Eicher Motors, Tata Consumers M&M, Hero MotoCorp, and Hindustan Unilever.
All other sectoral indices except realty and metal, traded in red.
Gainers and Losers on the BSE Sensex | Source: BSE
The BSE midcap and smallcap index rose 0.7-0.8%.
"We believe Index valuation needs to be seen in conjunction with relative earnings growth potential. Nifty is trading at PE of 19.8x on FY24E and 17.1x on FY25E earnings and Nifty earnings are expected to grow by 16.3% in FY24E and 15.5% in FY25E. Given lower crude oil prices, expectation of inflation peaking and expectation of slowing down of monetary tightening, we are positive on equity markets but given the higher valuation, a further rise may be muted." Sumit Pokharna, vice president - Fundamental research, Kotak Securities Ltd.
"We can see multiple triggers like lower crude oil prices, lower fiscal deficit, higher government expenditure, pick-up in private capex, reformist budget and housing market revival which can support markets in the medium to long term.In the recent rally, Mid-cap and small-cap indices, however, underperformed large-cap indices. So one can look at mid-cap companies having strong management pedigree, business moat, strong cash flow, but due to short term headwinds valuations have improved.At this juncture, investors should focus on a stock specific approach rather than just focusing on Nifty. Focus on quality companies in various sectors which have strong growth potential and valuations are reasonable. Just to highlight, IT valuations have become more palatable", he stated.
