Stock market selling continues; Sensex slips 150 points, Nifty below 24200
New Delhi| Selling was seen in the domestic stock market for the second consecutive day during early trading. In the morning session, Sensex was seen trading down 424.42 points at 79,117.37 while Nifty was seen trading down 132.7 points at 24,066.65. However, as time passed buying returned to the market at 9.11% in the morning, Sensex was seen trading 87.79 (0.11%) points higher at 79,629.58 points while Nifty was seen trading 15.06 points stronger at 24,214.40. The rupee fell 5 paise to 84.37 against the dollar in early trade on Friday.
Earlier, Sensex and Nifty fell in early trade on Friday amid continuous withdrawal of foreign capital and weak trend in major stocks like Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank. Market analysts say that unless there is clarity about corporate earnings, pick-up in consumption and foreign capital inflows, the Indian market will remain volatile.
Meanwhile, the US Fed has cut interest rates in two consecutive meetings, as inflation levels have been satisfactory. However, he said that on the other hand, India is facing the problem of food inflation, but the growth prospects are also less. RBI will announce its monetary policy meeting next month.
BSE Sensex fell 424.42 points to 79,117.37 in early trade. Whereas NSE’s Nifty fell by 132.7 points to 24,066.65 points. Of the 30 Sensex stocks, Tata Motors, Reliance Industries, Asian Paints, Maruti, NTPC and ICICI Bank had the biggest falls. The gainers included Infosys, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, Titan, Kotak Mahindra Bank and HDFC Bank.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold equities worth Rs 4,888.77 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data. VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said, “Two different trends are now evident in the market: one, the strengthening of the global market led by the US and the other, the weakness in the Indian market”. The main reason for weakness in the Indian market is the continuous selling by FIIs, which continues this month
In Asian markets, Seoul and Tokyo were trading in positive territory, while Shanghai and Hong Kong recorded declines. Wall Street closed with mostly gains on Thursday. “The Federal Reserve has cut its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 4.50 per cent-4.75 per cent after earlier interest rate cuts made to control inflation”, said Prashant Taapsee, senior vice president (research), Mehta Equities Ltd. Meanwhile, Nifty saw limited fluctuations amid continued selling by FIIs
Brent crude, the global oil standard, dropped 0.71 percent to $75.09 a barrel. On Thursday, BSE Sensex had closed at 79,541.79 points, down 836.34 points or 1.04 percent. Nifty had closed at 24,199.35 points, down 284.70 points or 1.16 percent.
