Domestic equity benchmarks the Sensex and the Nifty fell for the fifth consecutive session on March 15 amid mixed global cues as concerns over Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapse and rate hikes linger.
Sensex opened 368 points higher at 58,268.54 and rose about 573 points to hit an intraday high of 58,473.63 before settling 344 points, or 0.59 percent, lower at 57,555.90. Nifty50 closed the day at 16,972.15, down 71 points, or 0.42 percent.
Shares of Reliance Industries, HDFC twins, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, Axis Bank, Hindustan Unilever and SBI ended as the top drags on the Sensex index.
Mid and smallcap indices outperformed the benchmarks. The BSE Midcap index ended 0.02 percent lower while the Smallcap index closed 0.10 percent higher.
Market benchmarks slipped into the red after the European markets traded lower. France's CAC 40, Germany's DAX and the UK's FTSE fell up to 2 percent in trade after reports emerged that European Central Bank (ECB) may announce a half-percentage-point rate hike on March 16.
Nearly 260 stocks, including Reliance Industries, Bandhan Bank, HDFC Life Insurance Company, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company and Tata Consumer Products, hit their 52-week lows in intraday trade on BSE.
Oil prices rose after hitting a three-month low in the previous session on hopes of healthy demand from China. Brent Crude traded near the $78 per barrel mark.
The rupee ended 11 paise lower at 82.61 per dollar, Bloomberg data showed.
Top Nifty gainers: Shares of Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports and Asian Paints ended as the top gainers in the Nifty index.
Top Nifty losers: Shares of Bharti Airtel, IndusInd Bank and Reliance Industries ended as the top losers.
Sectoral indices
Most sectoral indices ended with losses, barring Nifty Metal (up 1.80 percent), Consumer Durables (up 0.83 percent), Healthcare (up 0.45 percent) and Pharma (up 0.31 percent).
Among the losers, Nifty Media (down 1.22 percent) and PSU Bank (down 1.21 percent) fell the most.
Nifty Bank, Private Bank, Realty and Financial Services fell almost a percent each.
Experts' views on markets
Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services pointed out that the in-line data showing a decline in US inflation provided a gap-up opening in context with the global relief rally, bringing confidence that the Fed would not opt for a harsh rate hike following the turmoil in the banking sector.
"Broader rate hike expectation has reduced from 50bps to 25bps and there are possibilities that the Fed may even consider not to hike in the March policy meeting. Domestic gains were short-lived, as European markets fell on fears that the ECB would raise interest rates by at least 25 bps at its meeting on Thursday," said Nair.
Technical views on markets
Jatin Gedia, Technical Research Analyst at Sharekhan by BNP Paribas pointed out that the key hourly moving averages placed at 17,200 acted as stiff resistance for Nifty.
"Nifty has achieved our short-term target of 16,950 and hence we revise it downwards to 16,750 which is the previous swing low," said Gedia.
"On the hourly charts, we can observe a positive divergence developing, however, it needs to be confirmed by a daily positive close and hence we shall assign more weightage to the price action as of now and continue to maintain our negative outlook on the index," Gedia said.
Key market data
Disclaimer: The views and recommendations given in this article are those of individual analysts. These do not represent the views of MintGenie.
