Correction Continues As Market Trades With Uncertainty; IT, Pharma, FMCG Trade Lowest

The Indian stock market halted its gaining mode in the Thursday expiry session after the signs of recovery in the last trading session. The existing global uncertainty combined with mixed Q3 numbers perpetuated the volatility which resulted in a choppy session. 

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) Nifty 50 index concluded its trading 0.47 per cent lower at 21,352 whereas the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex settled 0.53 per cent down at 70,683 levels.

In the Nifty50 index, Bajaj Auto topped the index with 5.33 per cent gains followed by 2.29 per cent and 1.91 per cent gains in Adani Ports and  NTPC respectively. Coal India, IndusInd Bank and ICICI Bank also traded with decent gains of more than 1 per cent in the index.

In the laggard segment, 33 stocks declined in the index. Tech Mahindra slipped 6.10 per cent due to a 61 per cent decline in its quarterly profit. Cipla and Bharti Airtel lost 3.37 per cent and 2.47 per cent respectively. LTI Mindtree and SBI Life lost more than 2 per cent while Tata Consumers and Divis Lab lost more than 1 per cent.

Analyst Note
“Market is witnessing a lot of volatility ahead of the Budget with a negative bias as investors further booked profits to cut down their long positions on the expiry day. Continuous outflows of foreign funds from the domestic equity market has been denting the sentiment over the past week. A rise in US bond yields coupled with mixed Q3 earnings so far and uptick in international crude oil prices due to simmering tensions in West Asia has been making investors jittery about the near term prospects,” said Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities.

On the technical front, with the immediate resistance being at 21,400 mark, we expect the market to go down further towards 21,100 and 21,000 eventually, and if it breaks 21000 level we can witness more selling pressure up to 20900-20500 levels. Any trend change would happen only once the Nifty surpasses the 21,500 mark, added Tapse.

Sectoral Movement
In terms of sector performance, IT traded lowest with 1.6 per cent loss while Pharma and FMCG also joined the losing league with 1.3 per cent and 1.15 per cent respectively. Finance and Banks also remained weak with almost half a per cent loss, whereas Auto and PSU Banks witnessed inadequate buying.   

Besides, the more domestically focussed index, mid-cap traded 0.45 per cent lower, conversely small-cap index gained 0.50 per cent.

Among Nifty 50 stocks, SAIL and PNB rose highest with 3.87 per cent and 3.52 per cent gains respectively. Godrej properties gained 2.89 per cent, while Canara Bank gained 2.42 per cent post quarterly results.

Conversely, Balkrishna Industries slumped 6.9 per cent followed by a 4.85 per cent decline in Hindustan Petroleum. AU Small Finance Bank and Jubilant Foodwork also lost more than 3 per cent.

Stocks Specific
Laurus Labs slipped almost 6 per cent as the company posted consecutive weak quarterly results with an 88.5 per cent decline in the year-on-year (YoY) profit.

Railtel Corp also rallied nearly 10 per cent to Rs 437 as the state-run telecom infra provider posted 94.5 per cent jump in profit and 47 per cent increase in revenue from operations.

PNB Housing Finance slumped 4.52 per cent to Rs 820 despite the bank posting a 26 per cent YoY increase in its net profit to Rs 3.38 billion.