Market Close: Sensex Down 285 pts Ahead of US Fed Outcome; Nifty Below 19,000; Metals Drag

Sensex Today: Equity benchmark indices traded with a negative bias on Wednesday dragged by persistent selling pressure in metal and select IT stocks.

The S&P BSE Sensex touched a low of 63,550, and finally ended 284 points lower at 63,591. The NSE Nifty 50, once again, slipped below the 19,000-mark, as it settled with a loss of 90 points.

Asian Paints and Tata Steel were the major laggards on the Sensex, down over 2 per cent each. Maruti, JSW Steel, HCL Technologies, TCS, NTPC, Nestle, Axis Bank, Larsen & Toubro and Infosys were the other prominent losers, down over a per cent each.

On the positive front, Sun Pharma gained 2.7 per cent post its Q2 results. ITC, Bajaj Finserv, Reliance and SBI finished with modest gains.

In the broader market, the BSE MidCap index declined in tandem with the benchmark and was down 0.4 per cent. The SmallCap index, however, was down merely 0.1 per cent.

Among sectors, the BSE Metal index shed 1.5 per cent. IT and Power indices were the other major losers, while the Realty index jumped 1.5 per cent.

Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said: “With the ground war in Gaza intensifying, the uncertainty surrounding the West Asian crisis is at its peak. Now we don’t know how and when this war will end and what the consequences will be. Therefore, investors should continue with a cautious strategy.”

“It is important to understand that equity markets globally are being impacted more by the spike in US bond yields rather than the Israel-Hamas conflict. The US 10-year bond yield above 4.9% will continue to be a major headwind for stock markets, particularly for those in emerging markets. Sustained selling by FIIs is likely to continue weighing on markets. The crash in Brent crude to $85 is a big positive for India. Aviation, paints and tyre stocks will respond positively to this news,” Vijaykumar said.

“Investors may watch the trends in high quality large caps like Maruti, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, RIL, ITC and L&T, which have come out with good Q2 results. These companies have good earnings visibility and, therefore, will witness substantial institutional buying when normalcy returns,” he added.