The benchmark indices closed lower on April 7 for the third straight day. The Nifty ended below 17,700 while the Sensex fell over 500 points dragged by heavy selling pressure in heavyweights Reliance Industries, TCS, and HDFC Bank.
Among major sectors that were hit were Oil & gas, power and metal indices which were down 1-2 percent each. Buying was noticed in pharma and realty names. All eyes are on MPC outcome to be announced tomorrow.
The Sensex was down 575.46 points or 0.97 percent at 59,034.95 against its previous day's close at 59,610.41 points.. The broader Nifty was down 168.20 points or 0.94 percent at 17,639.50. The Nifty had lost 149.75 points or 0.83 per cent on Wednesday. About 1,678 shares have advanced, 1,644 shares declined, and 102 shares are unchanged.
Among major laggards on the Nifty were Adani Ports, Titan Company, HDFC, Power Grid Corp and ONGC. The top Nifty gainers were Axis Bank, Divis Labs, HUL, Dr Reddy's Laboratories and ICICI Bank. Axis Bank surged 2.31 percent to Rs 791.50. ICICI Bank rose 1.12 percent to Rs 749.05. Hindustan Unilever, Mahindra & Mahindra, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Tech Mahindra and Sun Pharma were among the major Sensex gainers.
HDFC and HDFC Bank fell sharply for the third straight day after the announcement of merger deals. HDFC slumped 2.91 percent to Rs 2462.65. HDFC Bank dipped 2.19 percent to Rs 1516.90.
The share price of HDFC Bank and HDFC had surged by around 10 percent on Monday shortly after the merger deals were announced. However, in the last three days, these stocks have lost the gains made on the day when merger deals were announced.
Negative sentiment continued for the third straight session as the US Fed's hawkish stance has raised concerns of steeper interest rate hikes going ahead, said Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities Ltd. Investors also trimmed their positions ahead of RBI policy, although most of the experts believe the MPC may maintain status quo on policy rates. The fall was largely due to profit taking in Reliance Industries and other energy stocks amid volatility in global crude oil prices.
Technically, on intraday charts the Nifty is still holding lower high series formation and has also formed a bearish candle which is largely negative. However, in the last three days the index has corrected over 475 points and after a short term correction, it is currently trading near the important retracement support level. The market has completed one leg of correction and there is a strong possibility of a quick intraday relief rally if the index trades above 17,720. Above the same, the index could move up to 17,800 -17,850, Chouhan said.
Deepak Jasani, Head-Retail Research, HDFC Securities said, Volumes on the NSE were higher than recent averages. Nifty did not take support at the up gap area of 17,670-17,703 band and breached it. Nervousness spread to the broader markets today as is reflected in the advance decline ratio which fell to below 1:1 after 4four days. Currently the markets are led by the non-institutional players who have begun to aggressively take profits in the face of balance sheet reduction by the US Fed and ahead of the RBI policy meet. Nifty should now take support from 17,442-17,519 band. Friday’s RBI MPC meet may not bring in any positive surprise and hence there seems to be little build-up ahead of it.
We believe that this market weakness is due to hawkish FED commentary, said Mohit Nigam, Head - PMS, Hem Securities. It is expected that FED will hike rates by 50 Bps in their next meeting. Uma Exports made a strong debut on the bourses today and lists with 18 percent premium on Rs 80 today. On the technical front 17,500 and 18,000 are immediate support and resistance in Nifty 50 respectively. For Bank Nifty 37,000 and 38,000 are immediate support and resistance respectively
Rupee falls 11 paise to settle at 75.95 against US dollar
The rupee declined 11 paise to close at 75.95 (provisional) against the US dollar on Thursday as the hawkish stance of the US Federal Reserve affected investor sentiments in global markets and bolstered the American currency.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened lower at 75.88 against the US dollar, then slipped further to quote 75.99. It finally settled at 75.95, down 11 paise over its previous close.
On Wednesday, the rupee tanked 55 paise, its steepest single-day fall in a month, to close at a one-week low of 75.84 against the US dollar.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.04 per cent higher at 99.64.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures jumped 1.52 percent to $ 102.61 per barrel.
