Sensex, Nifty Trade Flat; Metal and Pharma Stocks Gain
The Indian equity markets were trading flat with negative bias as banking and financial stocks saw selling pressure from investors after a week of record highs and other positive developments. At 10:05 AM, the BSE Sensex was down 69.50 points at 55,879.60, and Nifty was down 7.10 points at 16,629.80.
In the 30-share pack Sensex, 16 shares declined and 14 stocks were trading green in the morning trade on Friday, August 27. Shares of ICICI Bank and HDFC were the top losers of the Sensex declining over a per cent each, while on the flipside, Sun Pharma, Maruti Suzuki, and Bharti Airtel gained around one per cent each.
Sector-wise, the Pharma, Metal and Realty sector were the top performers among all others as the indices gained more than a per cent each. However, only banks and financial counters were trading in red territory in the opening trade. The Pharma sector was the top newsmaker as all scrips in the index were trading higher with Aurobinda Pharma and Sun Pharma taking the lead, advancing over two and one per cent, respectively.
How will the markets perform ahead?
Experts are expecting a downside swing in the upcoming month with the Fed outcome to come tonight and also taking cues from the sustained selling from the foreign investors. Adding to the same, the daily Covid-19 cases in the country have also witnessed a sharp increase in the last few days. On Friday, the country reported 44,658 new cases and 496 deaths.
The situation is alarming and can spook the investor sentiment in the coming days which could further lead to volatility in the markets, experts pointed out.
The FIIs are likely to continue their selling streak if the comments from Fed chief turn out negative tonight and it will further become difficult for the retail investors and domestic institutional investors to defend the same.
"The elephant in the room is the sustained FII selling which touched Rs 1974 crore in the cash market yesterday. It would be difficult for retail and DIIs to absorb the selling from FIIs, which might aggravate if the message from the Fed chief tonight is hawkish," said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.
Moving ahead, investors are suggested to stay invested in quality IT largecaps as the sector is the strongest pillar in the current market and refrain themselves from shifting to Small and midcaps for a shorter period of time amid the sell-off in the broader markets.
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