Equity benchmarks the Sensex and the Nifty ended in the negative territory for the eighth consecutive session on February 28 amid mixed global cues.
Top European markets, including UK's FTSE, French CAC and German DAX traded in the red while Japan's Nikkei, Korea's Kospi and China's Shanghai Composite index rose up to half a percent as investors fear that rate hikes will continue and will stay at higher levels for a longer period.
In the last eight sessions of losses, Sensex has fallen 3.8 percent while the Nifty has come off 4 percent. Investors have lost over ₹10 lakh crore in this period.
Sensex and Nifty fell for the third consecutive month. In February, Sensx declined one percent while the Nifty50 dropped two percent because of the poor show of Adani Group stocks.
On February 28, Sensex fell 326 points, or 0.55 percent, to 58,962.12. Nifty ended at 17,303.95, down 89 points, or 0.51 percent.
Mid and smallcaps, however, outperformed, as the BSE Midcap index ended with a gain of 0.60 percent while the Smallcap inex rose 0.40 percent.
Crude oil prices rose in hopes of healthy demand from China. However, gains were capped due to concerns over the Fed rate hikes which may hit the economic growth and fuel demand.
The rupee jumped 18 paise to end at 82.67 per dollar even though the dollar index was set for its first monthly increase since September.
As many as 288 stocks, including Adani Green Energy, Adani Transmission, Adani Total Gas, Adani Wilmar, Bayer Cropscience and Pfizer, hit their 52-week lows in intraday trade on BSE.
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 Cipla, Hindalco and Dr Reddy's Labs ended as the top losers in the Nifty index.
As many as 33 stocks ended in the red in the Nifty index while 17 stocks ended in the green.
Sectoral indices
Among the sectoral indices, Nifty Media, with a gain of 2.46 percent, ended at the top, followed by Nifty Realty which rose 1.14 percent.
Nifty Auto, PSU Bank and Consumer Durables indices ended with mild gains.
On the other hand, Nifty Oil & Gas, Healthcare and Pharma indices fell over a percent each. Nifty IT fell almost by a percent while the Nifty Bank ended flat.
Expert's view on markets
"Global investors' interest in the equity market is weakening due to the slowdown in the economy, led by high inflation and contractionary monetary policy. Inflows are being diverted to safe assets, and corporate earnings growth is dropping, affecting the performance of the stock market and demanding a downgrade in valuation. The double whammy for India is that it is expensive compared to other emerging markets, resulting in underperformance in the global market," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
Technical view on markets
Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail) at Kotak Securities pointed out that for the bulls, 17,350 could be the immediate trigger level and above the same, the index could move up to 17,425-17,480. On the flip side, as long as the index trades below 17,350 the correction wave is likely to continue and it could slip to 17,250-17,200.
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.
