Sensex Ends Lower By 465 Pts, RIL Top Loser

The Dalal-Street witnessed a stressed session throughout the day on May 4 as the indices traded in a consolidated manner with no clear direction, mainly dragged by Pharma, IT, and the Auto stocks. The BSE Sensex closed lower by 465.01 points at 48,253.31 with declines in 21 shares out of 30.

Similarly, the key index Nifty-50 settled lower by 137.65 points at 14,496.50 with declines in 35 shares out of the 50-share pack. The Nifty Bank index also cleared its early gains to close lower by 195 points with HDFC Bank being the top loser, down 1.85 per cent.

Reliance Industries was the top loser for Sensex as it declined 2.11 per cent, followed by Sun Pharma (-1.99 per cent), Dr. Reddy's lab (-1.96 per cent), and HDFC (-1.61 per cent). The overall pharma index in the BSE declined over 1.5 per cent in the day's trade on sustained selling pressure from upper levels.

On the flipside, SBI Life Insurance and ONGC gained over two per cent each, while the shares of BPCL and Adani Ports added over a per cent.

The overall market breadth supported losses as nearly 1534 shares declined, 1374 shares advanced, and 169 shares closed unchanged.

However, analysts feel that the traders are looking positive as the exports in the country are likely to grow further backed by the demand which is back on track in rich countries. Further, Q4 earnings from companies will also define the cues and the market sentiment ahead, said, experts.
Siddhartha Khemka of Motilal Oswal Financial Services said, "So far the strong quarterly earnings season has been supportive to the market but the poor progress on the vaccination front is denting the sentiments. Investors should seize the opportunity of accumulating stocks during this volatility phase, while traders should be cautious and stock specific with timely profit booking approach."

Tracking the inflows in the market, on May 3, Foreign Investors offloaded shares worth Rs 2289 crore, while the Domestic investors added shares worth Rs 552 crore in the Indian equity market, as per the data available on exchanges. Analysts feel that the FIIs have been net sellers for a month but the DIIs have managed to neutralize the effect of the same on the market.

The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones ended higher as investors cheered better than expected results from companies. However, the Nasdaq index closed lower tracking declines in high growth stocks. The Asian markets were mostly trading in the red zone.