Sensex, Nifty end lower for third straight session: What should investors do?

The Indian equity market ended lower for the third straight session today, led by losses in banking, auto, consumer durables and capital goods stocks. Weak global investor sentiment emanating from Russia's attack on Ukraine's nuclear plant led to broad-based selling on Indian equity bourses today.

Sensex fell 768 points to 54,333 and Nifty slipped 252 points to 16,245. Titan, Maruti, Asian Paints were the top Sensex losers, falling up to 5.05 per cent. Dr Reddy's Labs, ITC and Tech Mahindra were the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 2.95 per cent.Of 30 Sensex stocks, 23 ended lower. BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices lost 547 points and 437 points, respectively.

Share Market updates: Sensex falls 768 points, Nifty ends below 16,250; Titan, Asian Paints, Maruti top losers

Sectoral Losers

On the sectoral front, banking, auto, capital goods and consumer durables shares led the losses today. BSE bankex fell 633 points to 39542 and BSE auto plunged 795 points to 22,577. BSE consumer durables index lost 1355 points to 40,973. BSE capital goods index fell 553 points to 26,550. All 19 BSE sectoral indices ended in the red.

The market breadth was negative with 1,228 shares ending higher against 2,126 stocks in the red. 103 shares were unchanged. Market cap of BSE-listed firms fell to Rs 246.73 lakh crore today against the previous session's market cap of Rs 251.05 lakh crore.Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital market, as they sold shares worth Rs 6644 crore on March 3, according to stock exchange data.

Explained: Is Russia's attack on Europe's largest power plant a nuclear threat?

Experts' Take

After three sessions of selling, investors must be looking for direction for the coming week. Here's a look at what experts said on the way ahead for Indian stock indices.

Nagaraj Shetti, Technical Research Analyst, HDFC Securities said, "Nifty as per weekly chart continued with the downtrend for this week. A follow-through negative candle was formed on the weekly chart after a decisive downside breakout of the crucial support at 16,800 levels. This is negative indication and one may expect further weakness in the near term. Formation of range movement at the lower high has eventually resulted in a downside breakout. The overall chart pattern signals more weakness for the Nifty ahead and the new swing lows of around 15800 could be registered in the next 1-2 weeks. Immediate resistance to be watched at 16400 levels."

Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities said, "Consistent selling by FPIs has resulted in all bounces being sold into. Domestic investors also get impacted in terms of sentiments at intervals with advance decline ratio falling deeply in the negative on March 04. On weekly charts, Nifty has closed at its lowest since August 2021. 15914-16147 band could provide support to the Nifty in the coming week and a sustainable minor bounce could be seen later as positive news flow is expected to come in from Europe."

Amol Athawale, Deputy Vice President, Technical Research, Kotak Securities said," With commodity prices on the rise, corporates heavily dependent on commodities would have to battle rising prices and falling currency, which would impact their operating parameters going ahead. Technically, post sharp pullback rally, the Nifty took the resistance near 16800 and corrected sharply. It made a couple of attempts to clear the resistance of 16800 but due to constant profit booking at higher levels it failed.

For the traders, 16350 -16400 would be the immediate resistance level. Above the same, the index could move up to 16550 and any further upside could lift the index up to 16700. On the other side, as long as the index is trading below 16350, the selling pressure is likely to continue. Below which, the correction wave will continue till 16000-15900."

Previous day action

Indian equity market ended lower in volatile trade on Thursday led by losses in banking, auto and consumer durables stocks. Sensex closed 366 points or 0.66% lower at 55,102 and Nifty plunged 107 points or 0.65 per cent to 16,498.

UltraTech Cement was the top Sensex loser, falling 6.47 per cent, followed by Dr Reddy's, Asian Paints, and Maruti Suzuki. PowerGrid, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, HCL Tech and ITC were among the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 3.34 per cent.

Global markets

World shares fell and oil prices moderated Friday as investors gauged the deepening impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Germany's DAX lost 1.4 per cent to 13,493.83 and the CAC 40 in Paris gave up 1.6 per cent to 6,278.15. Britain's FTSE 100 declined 1.5 per cent to 7,128.24.

In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index fell 2.2 per cent to 25,985.47 while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong slipped 2.5 per cent to 21,905.29. In Seoul, the Kospi declined 1.2 per cent to 2,713.43. The Shanghai Composite index lost 1 per cent to 3,447.65.

On Wall Street, the future for the benchmark S&P 500 was 0.5 per cent lower and the future for the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.4%. The S&P 500 fell 0.5 per cent on Thursday, the Dow slid 0.3 per cent and the Nasdaq fell 1.6 per cent.