The Indian stock market traded in a sluggish manner on Thursday after the global market appeared blurry. Post RBI meeting the market failed to show any momentum and kept trading sideways. The benchmark indices along the key sectoral indices ended lower.
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) Nifty 50 index ended 0.74 per cent lower at 24,117 whereas the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex settled 581 points or 0.73 per cent lower at 79,886 levels on the closing bell.
Nifty Moves
In the Nifty 50 index, merely 12 stocks advanced in the positive territory, while 38 stocks ended in the red territory.
Among the winners HDFC Life topped the index with 2 per cent gain followed by 1.6 per cent gain in Tata Motors. SBI Life, HDFC Bank and Cipla also traded more than 1 per cent higher.
Among the losers LTI Mindtree shredded more than 4 per cent, while Grasim Industries and Asian Paints lost more than 3 per cent. Infosys, Power Grid, Apollo Hospital, Ultratech Cement, Larsen and Toubro plummeted more than 2 per cent in the index.
Analyst Note
“There is a lot of uncertainty in global markets with regards to fears of recession in the US and the rising tension in the Middle East, which is prompting investors to cut down their long bullish bets in local equities as well. While markets may remain volatile in the near to medium term, investors will continue to look at global indices for cues,” said Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities.
“The domestic market reversed its earlier gains as the RBI's decision to hold its current policy with a caution to revise upward the CPI and moderate the growth forecast for Q1. Meanwhile the global market is focusing on US job data and the probability for deeper slowdown has raised concerns that the US economy is heading for a recession, forcing the federal reserve to cut rates faster than initially expected,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.
Sectoral Movement
In terms of sectoral performance, Nifty Bank and Financial Services ended with slight gains, while PSU Banks ended 0.78 per cent lower.
Metal, Realty and IT shredded more than 1 per cent, Auto lost negligible, while FMCG lost 0.45 per cent. However, Pharma ended with 0.45 per cent gain.
The more domestically focussed indices, Mid-cap fell 0.34 per cent, whereas Small-cap fell 0.41 per cent.