Q2 results, global cues dent indices; Sensex closes below 34,000-mark

Mumbai,   Mixed second quarter results, combined with negative global cues and concerns over a liquidity crisis impacting the NBFC sector, subdued the key domestic indices on Tuesday.

However, a bounce back from the day’s lows due to value buying helped to curb losses; nevertheless, the session marked the fourth consecutive negative close for the two key indices.

The session saw the 30-scrip S&P BSE Sensex drop below the 34,000 points mark while the NSE Nifty50 traded below 10,200 levels.

Heavy selling pressure was witnessed in IT, healthcare and TECK (technology, entertainment and media) counters which fell over two per cent.

Besides, the Indian rupee traded flat. It closed at 73.56 to a USD, while the crude oil price was below the $80 mark.

Index-wise, the S&P BSE Sensex closed at 33,847.23 points, down 287.15 points or 0.84 per cent.

The Sensex touched a intra-day high of 34,073.92 points and a low of 33,742.75 points.

Similarly, the Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) ended the day’s trade at 10,146.80 points, down 98.45 points or 0.96 per cent.

“The global market turned cautious and moved towards haven-assets like gold and bonds, the key issues were death of a Saudi journalist, Brexit and likely breach in Italy’s budget as per the European Commission,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.

“Along with this, India is also concerned about the huge amount of short-term debt maturities coming over the next two quarters, impacting the financial and infrastructure sector, leading to a mismatch in funding requirement.”

According to HDFC Securities’ Retail Research Head Deepak Jasani: “Broad market indices like the BSE Small Cap index fell more, thereby underperforming the main indices. Market breadth was negative on the BSE and NSE.”

“Sectorally, top gainer was the realty index. Top losers were pharma, IT, media and PSU bank indices.”

Investment-wise, provisional data with the exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors sold stocks in the tune of Rs 340.35 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors bought scrip worth just Rs 116.41 crore.

“Technically, with the Nifty correcting further, traders will need to watch if the index can now hold above the immediate support of 10,102 else a further correction is likely,” Jasani said.

The top gainers in the Sensex were IndusInd Bank, up 2.16 per cent at Rs 1,473.40; Tata Motors (DVR), up 1.99 per cent at Rs 94.75; HDFC Bank up 1.79 per cent at Rs 1,689.90;Yes Bank, up 1.26 per cent at Rs 213.65 and Bajaj Auto up 1.16 per cent at Rs 2,586.40.

Major losers included Asian Paints, down 5.21 per cent at Rs 1,138.80; Sun Pharma, down 5.07 per cent at Rs 576.30; Wipro, down 3.93 per cent at Rs 309.30; TCS, down 3.05 per cent at Rs 1,844.15; and Infosys, down 3.01 per cent at Rs 657.85 per share.

Previous articleTVS Motor net down marginally on increased total revenue
Next articleKhashoggi’s ‘savage’ murder was premeditated, says Erdogan