Nifty, Sensex end in the red as foreign investors continue to sell

The Nifty 50 ended 62 points lower at 17,894, while the S&P BSE Sensex fell 170 points to 60,092. Both benchmarks had risen over 0.5% intraday during the session.

Barring IT, PSU Bank and FMCG, all the other sectoral indices ended in the red with media and metal indices losing more than a percent each. Meanwhile. IT and PSU bank indices gained more than 1 percent each.

Tech Mahindra, HCL Tech, Infosys, Wipro and TCS were the top gainers on Nifty, on the other hand, Adani Ent, Axis Bank, Hindalco, JSW Steel and Maruti were the top losers.

“Nifty closed in the negative on Jan 16 after making lower tops lower bottoms. Metal stocks came under selling pressure as China pledged to tighten supervision on pricing of iron ore after the metal’s surge in recent months. At close, Nifty was down 0.34% or 61.8 points at 17894.9,” said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities.

“Global markets were flat to mildly positive, following the broadly positive cues from global markets on Friday offset by concerns of investors whether a rally in risk assets may be overdone given the outlook for inflation and economic growth.”

India’s Inflation, as measured by the Wholesale Price Index, stood at 4.95% in December – a 22 month low, compared to 5.85% in November. India’s merchandise exports declined by 12.2 percent to $34.48 billion in December 2022, as against $39.27 billion recorded in the same month of the preceding year. This comes after a 0.6 percent rise in exports in November and a 12 percent contraction in October.

“Decline in WPI inflation to 4.95% and CPI inflation to 5.72% in December shows a steady downtrend in price level. The significance of this downtrend is that it will enable the MPC to pause after one more, say, 25 bp rate hike in February. Therefore, higher rates will not impact the growth recovery underway in the economy now,” said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

“Nifty once again failed to build on to gains. It could stay in the 17994-17774 band in the near term,” said Jasani.

US market is closed for trading today on account of a public holiday.

Brent Crude traded near the $85 per barrel mark. The rupee fell 28 paise to close at 81.61 per barrel.

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