Sensex Down 237 pts; Nifty Below 18,050; TVS Motor, Havells Shed 4% Each

Sensex Today: Equity markets ended Friday’s choppy trade with nominal cuts pulled down by losses in select heavyweights. The BSE Sensex closed 237 points lower after it touched an intra-day high of 61,001. The NSE Nifty reached the day’s high of 18,145 before fizzling out gains and closing 80 points down at 18,028.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said: “Shaking off the weak lead from Wall Street, domestic indices attempted to trade higher due to economic optimism that stemmed from China’s reopening. However, concerns over the global economic slowdown eventually caught up and dragged markets lower. All sectors bled, barring banking stocks, ahead of the release of key earnings by private banking majors.”

The other top frontline drags included Bajaj twins, Nestle, L&T, Bharti Airtel, Maruti, Tech M, Sun Pharma, JSW Steel and HDFC Life, which lost 1-3 per cent.

While Coal India, Power Grid, HDFC twins, ITC, ICICI Bank, SBI, Tata Motors, Axis Bank, and NTPC were among the handful of index gainers.

Broader markets bled more than benchmarks with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices falling up to 0.7 per cent.

Within sectors, Nifty consumer durables, FMCG, metals, realty and pharma indices suffered the most losses ending around 1 per cent lower each, while bank and financial pockets held ground and logged fractional gains.

Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities, said: “Nifty remained sideways during the week as the benchmark index failed to provide any directional movement. On the higher end, it failed to reclaim the 50-day exponential moving average, which is considered a line of polarity between bullish and bearish market sentiment for the short term. Besides, it remained below the 50-week exponential moving average. The sentiment remains indecisive as the Nifty forms a back-to-back doji pattern on the weekly chart. However, the long-term bullish setup remains intact, with the higher top, higher bottom formation remaining in force. On the lower end, support is intact at 17,750, resistance on the higher end is pegged at 18,300. Breakout on either end to confirm the directional trend.”

Global Cues

Most Asian equity markets edged higher on Friday, while the U.S. dollar hung near its weakest level since May, with investors fretting about the risks of a global recession as the Federal Reserve presses on with interest rate increases.

Tokyo stocks opened lower on Friday, extending falls on Wall Street, as worries over a recession lingered after a top Federal Reserve official pledged a tough line on inflation.The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 0.32 percent, or 83.27 points, at 26,321.96 in early trade, while the broader Topix index slipped 0.19 percent, or 3.62 points, to 1,912.00.

US stock indexes closed lower on Thursday after data pointing to a tight labor market renewed concerns the Federal Reserve will continue its aggressive path of rate hikes that could lead the economy into a recession.

Oil prices rose on Friday on optimism that the U.S. Federal Reserve will ends its tightening cycle, buoying the economy and boosting fuel demand. Brent futures for March delivery gained 48 cents, or 0.6%, to $86.64 a barrel by 0113 GMT, while U.S. crude advanced 54 cents to $80.87 per barrel, a 0.7% gain.

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