Mumbai, Broadly negative global cues on the back of escalation in trade tensions dragged the key Indian equity indices into the red on Wednesday.
Additionally, heavy selling pressure in banking, healthcare and FMCG counters, outflow of foreign funds and high crude oil prices eroded investors’ risk taking appetite for the third consecutive session.
However, an appreciation in the rupee’s value against the US dollar arrested the market’s slide.
Index-wise, the wider NSE Nifty50 closed at 11,234.35 points, lower by 44.55 points or 0.39 per cent from the previous close of 11,278.90 points.
The S&P BSE Sensex, which had opened at 37,432.93 points, closed at 37,121.22 points, lower by 169.45 points or 0.45 per cent from the previous close of 37,290.67 points.
It touched a high of 37,530.63 points and a low of 37,062.69 during the day’s trade.
“Markets continued to correct on Wednesday. It was the third consecutive session of losses for the Nifty,” said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities.
“Broad market indices like the BSE Mid Cap and Small Cap indices lost more, thereby underperforming the main indices. Market breadth was negative on the BSE and the NSE.”
According to Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services: “Stock markets in India continued their downward trajectory as trade-war fears threatened to derail global economic growth.”
“Sectoral performance, though mixed, was largely skewed towards the negative.”
On the currency front, the Indian rupee closed at 72.37, recovering 61 paise from its previous close of 72.98 per greenback.
Investment-wise, provisional data with the exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors sold scrip worth Rs 2,184.55 crore and domestic institutional investors bought stocks worth Rs 1,201.30 crore.
Sector-wise, metal stocks gained 173.65 points, oil and gas gained 143.28 points and IT stocks edged up by 23.21 points.
On the other hand, the S&P BSE banking index lost 152.39 points, the Healthcare index was down 93.30 points and the FMCG ended 131.23 points lower from its previous close.
The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India, up 2.60 per cent at Rs 280.55; ONGC, up 1.90 per cent at Rs 176.65; Tata Steel, up 1.31 per cent at Rs 620.45; Hero MotoCorp, up 0.99 per cent at Rs 3,142.35; and Kotak Mahindra , up 0.88 per cent at Rs 1227 per share.
The losers were IndusInd Bank, down 3.05 per cent at Rs 1,804.60; Maruti Suzuki, down 2.30 per cent at Rs 8,207; HDFC Bank down 1.58 at Rs 1,961.95; Yes Bank, down 1.44 per cent at Rs 318.50; HDFC, down 1.35 per cent at Rs 1,831.15 per share.
