Adani effect: How two stocks changed the direction of Sensex, Nifty on Budget day

After gyrating 2,000 points, it was the BSE Sensex that ended in the black on the Budget Day. Nifty was not that lucky, thanks to a selling pressure in two of its constituents. They were Adani Enterprises and Adani Ports & SEZ.

As per the NSE factsheet as of January 31, the two stocks were not among top 10 heavyweight Nifty constituents, but the stocks fell up to 26.70 per cent, weighing on the index value.

At close, the NSE Nifty was at 17,616.30, down 45.85 points or 0.26 per cent. The BSE Sensex, which has no Adani group stock as constituent, closed the day at 59,708.08, up 158.18 points or 0.27 per cent.

From a day's high of 60,773.44 to a low of 58,816.84, Sensex was once down 1,956.60 points. On the other hand, the Nifty50 hit a high of 17,972.20, before closing lower.

“Markets originally greeted this budget with enthusiasm, but Adani Group stole the show later on when its stocks plummeted, causing market sentiment to deteriorate once further. The FOMC meeting is important tonight, but the Adani saga is the most important factor that the market will be watching,” said Santosh Meena, Head of Research, Swastika Investmart.

For Nifty, the 200-DMA is around 17,300, which is a critical support on the downside, he said.

The level of 18,000 is a critical hurdle for any short-covering rally, he said while adding that investors should accumulate good-quality stocks that have no correlation with Adani group.

"At one point during the Budget presentation, Sensex had vaulted nearly 1,200 points, but a rout in the Adani group stocks and nervousness ahead of the important Federal Reserve meet on interest rate punctured the rally and saw key indices ending mixed," said Shrikant Chouhan of Kotak Securities.

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