Back in corrective mode, MKTs
Mumbai: Amidst conflicting trends in global markets, investors reduced their exposure to banking, financial, and consumer durable companies on Friday, causing market benchmarks Sensex and Nifty to wilt under selling pressure after a five-day surge. According to dealers, the rupee’s decline, rising global oil prices, and ongoing outflows of foreign funds all contributed to the negative atmosphere. The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 609.28 points, or 0.82 percent, to close at 73,730.16, suggesting that profit-taking was also in effect. It dropped to 73,616.65 throughout the day by 722.79 points, or 0.97 percent. The NSE Nifty dropped to 22,419.95, a loss of 150.40 points, or 0.67 percent. The BSE benchmark increased by 641.83 points, or 0.87, while the NSE Nifty increased by 272.95 points, or 1.23 per cent, on a weekly basis.
The decline was anticipated since profit-taking had been overdue for some time and the benchmark indexes had both increased for five consecutive sessions. According to Prashanth Tapse, senior V-P (research), Mehta Equities Ltd., “Correction is also attributed to global factors after the Japanese Yen fell to a new 34-year low and disappointing US data pushed its benchmark yields to over 4.7 per cent, thus worsening hopes of an interest rate cut in the medium term.”
Market mood was affected by the US core PCE price index’s surprise rise, which was followed by Treasury rate spikes and slower-than-expected GDP growth. Investors are worried that the US recession might be approaching soon. According to Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services, “worries over high valuations and weak Q4 earnings fuelled expectations of downward revisions for FY25 earnings,” which is why the Indian market fell behind its rivals in Asia and Europe.
Bankex fell 0.70 percent, followed by financial services (0.68 percent), teck (0.26 percent), auto (0.25 percent), and communications (0.15 percent) among the indexes. Among the winners were energy, electricity, healthcare, and services.
The largest drag on the Sensex chart was Bajaj Finance, which fell by about 8% after the company’s results for the March quarter failed to satisfy investors. Bajaj Finserv had a drop of more than 3% as well. Among the other laggards were Mahindra & Mahindra, IndusInd Bank, Nestle, and Kotak Mahindra Bank. In the meantime, Tech Mahindra surged more than 7% on the CEO of the IT services provider’s announcement of a bold three-year plan to boost profits and speed up revenue development. Among the winners were Axis Bank, Titan, UltraTech Cement, ITC, Wipro, and others. The BSE midcap gauge increased by 0.83 percent and the smallcap index by 0.27 percent in the overall market.
Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong Kong established themselves in the positive region of the Asian markets. The markets in Europe were trading higher. On Thursday, Wall Street finished lower. The benchmark for world oil, Brent crude, increased by 0.31 percent to $89.29 a barrel. Against the US dollar, the rupee fell 8 paise to settle at 83.36 (provisional) on Friday. According to exchange statistics, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded stocks on Thursday for a total of Rs 2,823.33 crore.
