Sensex and Nifty Break 4-Day Winning Streak After Scaling Lifetime Highs; Banks & Metals Top Drags

The Indian markets broke their four-day winning streak as Sensex and Nifty closed lower dragged by banks and metals after scaling lifetime highs on Wednesday, August 18. The Sensex today touched a new high of 56,118.57, and Nifty at 16,701.85 in the morning deals.

At close, the BSE Sensex was down 162.78 points at 55,629.49, and the key index Nifty-50 was at 16,568.85. Shares of Kotak Mahindra dipped over two per cent, while those of ICICI Bank, Power Grid Corp, and HDFC slipped over a per cent each.

On the flipside, UltraTech Cement, Bajaj Finserv and Bajaj Finance were the top stocks defending the BSE Sensex on Wednesday as they advanced 1-2 per cent each.

Experts feel that largecaps will take the rally in the markets ahead from hereon. This has been the fastest bull run as the Sensex has jumped from 55,000 to 56,000 in just three trading sessions, experts said.

"Sensex is continuing its northward journey with new highs every day for the last five trading sessions supported by inflows in large-cap stocks especially IT names," said Santosh Meena - Head of Research at Swastika Investmart.

Sector-wise today, the Auto, Banks, Financials and Metals closed red, while the IT, Pharma, and FMCG saw sustained buying interest throughout the day. Welspun Corp, NALCO, Vedanta, and Hindalco were the top losers in the Metal pack, declining 2-3 per cent each.

In the overall market breadth, around 1037 shares advanced, 2067 shares declined, and 110 shares were unchanged.