The Indian equity benchmarks ended lower for the fourth straight session with the Nifty breaking 17,000 intraday in the highly volatile session on March 14.
At close, the Sensex was down 337.66 points or 0.58 percent at 57,900.19, and the Nifty was down 111.00 points or 0.65 percent at 17,043.30.
Amid weak Asian markets, the Indian benchmarks started on a negative note but recovered the losses and traded flat for a couple of hours before bears took charge. However, a 25-month low WPI inflation helped erase all the intraday losses but selling across the sectors dragged the benchmarks into the red.
“The selling continued while the degree of ambiguity over the US banks reduced due to supportive measures announced by the US FED. The underlying issue of the market is high interest rates, which will continue to wreak havoc in the world economy,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
“Yields will take time to moderate to the long-term trend, given hawkish monetary policy and high inflation.
“However, the disruptive development in the US banks and a slowing economy have created a precursor to presume that yields will peak in the near future, supported by a change in monetary policy from hawkish to neutral, which will diminish the worries of long-term investors,” he added.
Also Read: India’s wholesale prices ease to 3.85% in February on reduced fuel & power prices
Stocks and sectors
Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports, M&M, TCS and HDFC Life were among the major losers on the Nifty, while gainers were BPCL, Titan Company, Bharti Airtel, SBI Life Insurance and Larsen & Toubro.
All the sectoral indices ended in the red with power, realty, information technology, PSU Bank, metal and auto falling 1-2 percent.
The BSE midcap index fell 0.5 percent and smallcap index fell 0.8 percent.
More than 300 stocks touched their 52-week low on the BSE, including Vakrangee, TV Today Network, SMS Lifesciences, Reliance Industries, PNB Gilts, Page Industries, Muthoot Finance, Mphasis, Dr. Lal PathLabs, Jubilant Pharmova, Ipca Laboratories, Housing Development & Infrastructure, Hathway Cable & Datacom, Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals, Bandhan Bank, Biocon and Aarti Drugs.
Among individual stocks, a volume spike of more than 200 percent was seen in Balrampur Chini Mills, Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail and Marico.
A short build-up was seen in Adani Enterprises, Bandhan Bank and Intellect Design Arena, while a long build-up was seen in GMR Airports Infrastructure, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services and Zee Entertainment Enterprises.
Outlook for March 15
Jatin Gedia, Technical Research Analyst, Sharekhan by BNP Paribas
The Nifty witnessed a volatile trading session today. It witnessed sharp swings in both directions and ultimately closed in the negative, down 111 points for the day. It is the fourth consecutive negative close for the Index. It has corrected around 800 points during this period and hence a relief rally cannot be ruled out.
The momentum indicator has a negative crossover which is a sell signal, and prices trading along the expanding lower Bollinger band suggests that the fall is likely to continue. The preferred strategy to trade in the Nifty would be to sell on rise around 17,150 – 17,200 zone. On the downside we expect the Nifty to target levels of 16,950 where the lower end of the downward-sloping channel is placed. On the upside, 17,380 – 17,400 where the 40-hour moving average is placed should act as an immediate hurdle zone from short-term perspective.
Siddhartha Khemka, Head – Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services
Domestic indices saw a roller coaster ride amid continued global uncertainty. The Nifty opened flat but soon witnessed selling pressure. It drifted below the 17K zone for a brief moment intraday – almost after more than four months – it was below 17K last time on October 13, 2022. The Nifty finally ended the day with a loss of 111 (-0.7%) at 17,043 levels.
The only positive factor today was the WPI data for February 2023, which came in at a 25-month low at 3.85 percent. Except Pharma, all sectors ended in the red.
Markets are likely to remain under pressure in the near term, as the US banking crisis deepens with more and more US banks coming under the cloud. Now all eyes will be on the US inflation data that will be released late on Tuesday and would be a key factor for the Fed’s decision on interest rate in its upcoming meeting amidst the ongoing banking turmoil.
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