Sensex falls over 300 points in early trade, Nifty trades below 18,550; Rhi Magnesita down 9%; Eureka Forbes up 11%

Indian equity benchmarks fell in early deals on Wednesday amid weak global cues. The domestic indices were dragged by banks, financials, metals and energy stocks. The 30-share BSE Sensex pack slipped 306 points or 0.49 per cent to trade at 62,663, while the broader NSE Nifty moved 88 points or 0.47 per cent down to trade at 18,546. On the global front, Asian equities were in the red on US debt deal concerns and weak manufacturing data from China.

Back home, mid- and small-cap shares were up as Nifty Midcap 100 crawled 0.06 per cent higher and small-cap rose 0.36 per cent.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought Rs 2,086 crore worth of Indian equities on Tuesday. FIIs have been net buyers in Indian stocks in 23 of the last 24 sessions.

"Sustained FPI flows can take the markets higher and into over-valued territory if new Nifty records are set. Some profit booking at new record level can be considered. Aggressive buying at this stage will be risky even in this resilient market," said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Investors also await India's GDP data for the fourth quarter (Q4 FY23), scheduled to be released post-market hours today.

Nine 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 Metal and Nifty Oil & Gas were underperforming the NSE platform by falling as much as 0.77 per cent, 0.74 per cent, 1.02 per cent and 0.67 per cent, respectively.

On the stock-specific front, Adani Enterprises was the top loser in the Nifty pack as the stock cracked 1.66 per cent to trade at Rs 2,454.95. ONGC, Reliance Industries, HDFC and NTPC fell up to 1.45 per cent.

In contrast, Sun Pharma, Tech Mahindra, Apollo Hospitals, Eicher Motors and HDFC Life were among the top gainers.

The overall market breadth was positive as 1,445 shares were advancing while 1,326 were declining on BSE.

On the 30-share BSE index, Rhi Magnesita India and KRBL tanked up to 8.63 per cent. Sona BLW Precision Forgings, Adani Total Gas, Delhivery, Uflex, Supreme Industries, Campus Activewear and Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) fell up to 3.97 per cent.

On the other hand, Eureka Forbes jumped 11.37 per cent. Cyient, Lemon Tree Hotels, KPIT Tech, Welspun Corp, Timken India and Sobha climbed up to 4.05 per cent.

Sensex had gained 123 points, or 0.20 per cent, to settle at 62,969 yesterday, while Nifty had moved 35 points, 0.19 per cent, to end the session at 18,634.

Nifty outlook

 

"With the near-term support maintained near 18,570, we anticipate Nifty to achieve the next targets of 18,800-18,900 in the coming days. The support for the day is seen at 18,500 levels while the resistance is seen at 18,800," said Vaishali Parekh, Vice-President - Technical Research at Prabhudas Lilladher.

Nifty Bank outlook

 

"Nifty Bank continues to make new highs with the positive bias remaining intact and near-term support maintained near 43,400. We anticipate a further rise from the banking stocks to carry the index for the next targets of 45,900-46,000 levels. The sub-index would have the daily range of 44,100-44,800 levels," Parekh stated.

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