The Indian market fell for a fifth straight session on Thursday, with the Sensex and Nifty dragged lower by financial and IT shares as persistent foreign outflows and worries over U.S. visa curbs weighed on sentiment.
The S&P BSE Sensex dropped 555.95 points, or 0.7%, to close at 81,159.68, while the NSE Nifty 50 shed 166.05 points, or 0.7%, ending at 24,890.85.
Indian markets extended its losing streak for a fifth straight session as investors booked profits amid persistent FII outflows and uncertainty over US-India trade talks, which is expected to dent Q2 GDP growth, said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Investments.
“Broad based selling prevailed in the market with heavy selling across auto, IT, pharma, and healthcare sectors, while metals gained on the back of China’s liquidity support and copper supply concerns. Overall, sentiment remains cautious ahead of India’s H2FY26 borrowing and US macroeconomic data, expected to be released over the end of the week,” said Nair.
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Wall Street’s main indexes fell to their lowest in a week on Thursday, as fresh economic data and remarks from a Federal Reserve official tempered optimism around further rate cuts.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 14,000 to a seasonally adjusted 218,000 for the week ended September 20, data from the Labor Department showed. Economists polled by Reuters forecast 235,000 claims for the latest week.
European shares fell on Thursday, with med-tech stocks down after news of the U.S opening new import-related probes, while focus was on comments from Federal Reserve officials and data to assess the U.S. central bank’s policy path.
The pan-European STOXX 600 shed 0.2% to trade at 552.7 points. Most regional bourses also ticked lower, with German and French blue-chips down about 0.3% each.
Healthcare stocks dropped 1%, with German medical technology company Siemens Healthineers sliding 4.3% after the U.S. Commerce Department said it has opened new national security investigations into the import of personal protective equipment, medical items, robotics, and industrial machinery.
The Nifty has fallen below the crucial support level of 25,050, which also coincides with the 38.20% Fibonacci retracement of the previous rise from 24,400 to 25,450, said Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities, adding that the index has slipped below the 21 EMA on the daily timeframe, confirming increasing bearish sentiment.
“It appears that the bulls are stepping back, giving bears more control over the market. On the downside, immediate support is placed at 24,800; a break below this level could trigger a deeper and more serious correction. On the upside, resistance is seen at 25,000,” said De.
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HDFC Bank (Rs 2,991 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 2,979 crore), Adani Power (Rs 2,375 crore), Hindustan Copper (Rs 2,005 crore), Netweb Technologies (Rs 1,810 crore), Bajaj Finance (Rs 1,708 crore) and Tata Motors (Rs 1,642 crore) were among the most active stocks on BSE in value terms. Higher activity in a counter in value terms can help identify the counters with highest trading turnovers in the day.
Vodafone Idea (Traded shares: 73.48 crore), Adani Power (Traded shares: 15.83 crore), YES Bank (Traded shares: 11.71 crore), Hindustan Copper (Traded shares: 6.16 crore), Suzlon Energy (Traded shares: 3.82 crore), HDFC Bank (Traded shares: 3.14 crore) and Canara Bank (Traded shares: 3.07 crore) were among the most actively traded stocks in volume terms on NSE.
Shares of Hindustan Copper, Netweb Technologies, Newgen Software, eClerx Services, Adani Wilmar, Adani Power and Hindustan Zinc were among the stocks that witnessed strong buying interest from market participants.
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Over 137 stocks hit their 52 week highs today while 94 stocks slipped to their 52-week lows. Among the ones which hit their 52 week highs included Amber Enterprises and Netweb Technologies.
Stocks which witnessed significant selling pressure were Tata Investment, Aditya Birla Retail, Home First Finance, Ramkrishna Forgings, Godrej Agrovet, Tanla Platforms and Whirlpool India.
The market sentiments were bearish. Out of the 4,319 stocks that traded on the BSE on Thursday, 2,793 stocks witnessed declines, 1,392 saw advances, while 134 stocks remained unchanged.
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(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of the Economic Times)
