Sensex, Nifty slip in early trade; Chennai Petroleum, Sharda Cropchem & DCM Shriram fall up to 8%

Indian equity benchmarks traded lower in early deals on Tuesday amid weak global cues. The domestic indices were dragged by technology and consumer goods shares. The 30-share BSE Sensex pack fell 40 points or 0.06 per cent to trade at 66,345, while the broader NSE Nifty moved 5 points or 0.02 per cent down to trade at 19,668. Although, mid- and small-cap shares were positive as Nifty Midcap 100 rose 0.41 per cent and small-cap gained 0.51 per cent.

On the global front, Asian equities were mostly up. Overnight, Wall Street equities closed higher, ahead of key results of major US companies including Alphabet, Meta Platforms and Microsoft, as well as policy decisions by the Fed and European Central Bank.

Back home, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers for second session in a row during the previous session, offloading Rs 82.96 crore of Indian equities on a net basis, while domestic investors bought Rs 935 crore of shares, as per provisional NSE data.

"FII flows have slowed down. In the last two days FIIs have sold stocks worth Rs 2,081 crore, indicating buying exhaustion. This is normal response to the rising dollar index which has moved up to 101.4 from the recent low of 99. Even though Nifty is showing signs of resilience, it is unlikely to race to 20,000 level in the next few days, given the rising dollar and declining FII inflows. Brent crude spiking to $82 will be another drag on the market. Globally, markets will be keenly watching the Fed commentary since a 25-bps hike in rate is already known and discounted by the market," said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Just two out of the 15 sector gauges -- compiled by the National Stock Exchange -- were trading in the red. Sub-indexes Nifty IT and Nifty FMCG were underperforming the NSE platform by falling as much as 0.30 per cent and 0.97 per cent, respectively.

On the stock-specific front, ITC was the top loser in the Nifty pack as the stock cracked 2.33 per cent to trade at Rs 460.35. SBI Life, Asian Paints, Tech Mahindra and UPL fell up to 1.45 per cent.

In contrast, Hindalco, JSW Steel, Ultratech Cement, NTPC and Tata Motors were among the top gainers.

The overall market breadth was positive as 1,906 shares were advancing while 974 were declining on BSE.

On the 30-share BSE index, HDFC Bank, Ultratech Cement, Reliance Industries, Tata Motors, JSW Steel and Tata Steel were among the top laggards.

Also, Chennai Petroleum Corporation, Sharda Cropchem, DCM Shriram, Mahindra Logistics and Shoppers Stop tanked up to 7.51 per cent. On the other hand, SJVN, JK Paper, Repco Home Finance and Reliance Infrastructure climbed up to 7.67 per cent.

On Monday, Sensex had slipped 299 points, or 0.45 per cent, to settle at 66,384.78, while Nifty had declined 73 points, or 0.37 per cent, to end the day at 19,672.35.

Nifty outlook

"Nifty has further slipped down witnessing some profit booking and has cooled off from the peak zone of 20,000 level with some of the heavyweights shedding their gains. The Nifty index has the near-term support of 19,600 level which is crucial breaching which further slide can be anticipated with 19,300-19,350 maintained as the crucial and important support zone for the index. The support for the day is seen at 19,600 level while the resistance is seen at 19,800 level," said Vaishali Parekh, Vice-President - Technical Research at Prabhudas Lilladher.

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