Bears Maintain Their Grip Over Market; Sensex Falls 703 Pts, Nifty Settles Below 17,000
After trading flat till about 3:00 pm in Tuesday’s session, Indian equity benchmarks witnessed a sharp sell-off in the last hour, ending in red for the fifth consecutive session. A host of factors were at play during the session, which dented investor sentiment. This included World Bank’s cut in global growth projection, rising inflation, the war in Eastern Europe getting intense and high crude oil prices due to supply disruptions from Libya.
The 30-share pack Sensex declined 703.59 points or 1.23 per cent to close at 56,463.15. Its broader peer NSE Nifty settled at 16,958.65, down 215 points or 1.25 per cent. The indices were dragged by heavy selling in IT, financial and consumer goods stocks.
"Late sell-off in the markets on worries over new turn in Russia-Ukraine crisis. Technology, FMCG and Reality lost the most, shed over three per cent. Technically, on daily charts, the Nifty has formed a long bearish candle and after a long time, it succeed to close below 200 day SMA which indicates further weakness from the current levels," said Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities.
On the Sensex, Reliance, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India and Bajaj Finance were the only stocks to end in green. Among the losers on the Sensex, HDFC took the lead, plunging 5.50 per cent, followed by HDFC Bank, which declined 3.73 per cent. Both HDFC twins have fallen by 20 per cent since their merger announcement on April 4.
On Nifty50, Apollo Hospitals, Coal India, and Reliance made the most gains, while HDFC Bank, HDFC, HDFC Life and SBI Life were among the biggest laggards.
The overall market breadth stood negative as 1,164 shares advanced while 2,248 declined on BSE.
The war in Eastern Europe intensified on Tuesday as Russia launched the 'Battle Of Donbas'. "Another stage... (in eastern Ukraine) is beginning and I am sure this will be a very important moment of this entire special operation," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday.
"The latest development triggers fresh set of worries for investors, the whole world was thinking the Russia-Ukraine situation was cooling off but it is heating up again", said Prashanth Tapse, vice president (research), Mehta Equities.
Nifty's energy sub-index, which scaled record highs during the session, gave up gains and settled a tick higher at 0.06 per cent.
Among the few gainers, Coal India settled higher for a third straight session, adding 4.4 per cent after the miner said it raised supplies to thermal power stations due to rising demand.
Barring Nifty Oil & Gas index, all other NSE's sectoral indices settled in red. Nifty IT and FMCG indices tumbled 3 per cent each, followed by a 2.5 per cent drop in Nifty Realty index.
(With inputs from Reuters)
