Benchmark indices closed lower for the third straight session on Friday, led by a fall in banking and IT counters amid continuous foreign fund outflows. Sensex ended 453 points lower at 59,900 and Nifty dipped 132 points to end at 17,859.
Top losers
TCS (2.97%), IndusInd Bank (2.81%), Bajaj Finserv (2.63%), Tech Mahindra (2.40%), Bajaj Finance (1.95%) and Infosys (1.79%) were the top Sensex losers.
Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services,”Investor risk sentiment took a blow post the release of the FOMC meeting minutes, which indicated further rate hikes in 2023 to tame inflation. Upcoming key US jobs data is expected to be encouraging which would influence the next Fed’s policy. The market already remains sensitive to FIIs selling and IT stocks traded with deep cuts ahead the release of corporate earnings next week as the growth is anticipated to be muted.”
Top Gainers
M&M (1.06%), RIL (0.94%), Nestle India (0.57%), ITC (0.52%) and L&T (0.05%) were the only Sensex gainers.
Market breadth was negative with 1424 shares closing lower against 2084 stocks falling on BSE. 130 shares were unchanged.
Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities said, “Bears continue to have the upper hand as the benchmark index Nifty has been posting red candles for the last three days. The Nifty found support around the previous swing low on the daily timeframe. The momentum indicator RSI (14) is in bearish crossover, suggesting weak price momentum in the near term. Going forward, 17,770 is likely to act as support for the falling Nifty; a decisive fall below the said level may take the index towards 17,500. On the higher end, resistance is visible at 18,000, above which a recovery may come.”
Top sectoral losers were banking and IT shares with their BSE indices slipping 504 pts each in trade today.
Market cap of BSE-listed firms settled at Rs 279.77 lakh crore. BSE mid cap and small cap indices slipped 183 points and 212 points, respectively. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded shares worth a net Rs 1,449.45 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.
Previous session
Benchmark indices closed lower for the second straight session on Thursday, led by a fall in banking and finance counters and continuous foreign fund outflows. Sensex ended 304.18 points lower at 60,353.27 after the index failed to hold on to initial gains. During the day, the 30-stock Sensex fell 607.61 points or 1 per cent to 60,049.84. Nifty dipped 50.80 points or 0.28 per cent to end at 17,992.15.