Sensex falls over 200 points, Nifty slips below 19,700; Jyoti Resins, Blue Dart & RailTel down up to 5%

Indian equity benchmarks traded lower in early deals on Friday amid weak global cues. The domestic indices were dragged by bank, financial, technology and metal shares. The 30-share BSE Sensex pack fell 227 points or 0.34 per cent to trade at 66,039, while the broader NSE Nifty moved 61 points or 0.31 per cent down to trade at 19,699. Mid- and small-cap shares were positive as Nifty Midcap 100 rose 0.21 per cent and small-cap climbed 0.39 per cent.

On the global front, Asian markets edged lower today. Overnight, Wall Street equities closed lower.

Back home, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold Rs 3,979 crore of Indian equities on a net basis during the previous session, while domestic investors purchased Rs 2,528 crore of shares, as per provisional NSE data.

"Investors have to be careful chasing small-caps which are in overvalued territory. Large-caps, even when richly valued, are safe unlike risky small-caps. Pharma is staging a comeback and there is value-buying happening in beaten down metal stocks," said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Seven out of the 15 sector gauges -- compiled by the National Stock Exchange -- were trading in the red. Sub-indexes Nifty Bank, Nifty Financial Services, Nifty IT and Nifty Metal were underperforming the NSE platform by falling as much as 0.51 per cent, 0.63 per cent, 0.30 per cent and 0.21 per cent, respectively.

On the stock-specific front, Hindalco was the top loser in the Nifty pack as the stock cracked 1.23 per cent to trade at Rs 445.85. Bajaj Finserv, Axis Bank, BPCL and HDFC Bank fell up to 1.21 per cent.

In contrast, DR Reddy's, Reliance Industries, M&M, Power Grid and Tata Consumer Products were among the top gainers.

The overall market breadth was positive as 1,720 shares were advancing while 1,108 were declining on BSE.

On the 30-share BSE index, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Axis Bank and Tata Motors were among the top laggards.

Also, Jyoti Resins, Blue Dart and RailTel Corporation tanked up to 4.54 per cent. On the other hand, Intellect Design, Greenlam Industries, Ajanta Pharma and Kajaria Ceramics jumped up to 13.46 per cent.

On Thursday, Sensex had slumped 440 points or 0.66 per cent to settle at 66,267, while Nifty had moved 118 points or 0.60 per cent lower to close at 19,660.

Nifty outlook

 

"Despite a positive opening, inability to convincingly breach the upper boundary of the 19,770-19,840 band, which we had marked down as pivotal region, led to a liquidation spree that stretched through the day, until 19,620 stepped in to arrest further free fall. The swing thereof and a close near 19,700 encourages us to go in today expecting positivity and get back to the 20,160 trajectories. However, expect bears to dominate if unable to clear 19,770 or float above 19,670, but a free fall is less expected," said Anand James, Chief Market Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

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