Markets end more than 1% lower; Nifty slips below 17,600, Sensex declines nearly 800 points

Domestic equity markets halted three-day winning streak to end nearly 1.5 per cent lower amid weak global cues and profit booking on Thursday. Headline indices Nifty 50 and the Sensex declined by 124% and 1.29% respectively.  

The broader Nifty sipped below 17,600 to 17,560.20 and the Sensex slumped nearly 800 points to close at 58,788.02.  

Barring auto and consumer durables, all sectors ended in the red with IT, Realty, Financial Services and Power declining the most. In the broader market, Nifty small cap and midcap too declined up to 1 per cent. 

The domestic market extended its losses following broad-based selling as global cues turned in favour of bears, said said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services .

"All major sectors succumbed to selling, while Auto stocks showed some resistance on the back of sequential growth in auto sales numbers during January. US futures were under pressure following weak earnings numbers reported by Meta (Facebook), while European markets fretted about monetary policy tightening ahead of the central bank policy announcement," he said in post market commentry

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Top losers on Thursday were HDFC, SBI Life, Infosys, L&T, Grasim, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Finance, Wipro, Kotak Bank and Bajaj Finserv as the shares corrected the most.  

Auto stocks led by Hero MotoCorp gained the most in negative market as the index ended 0.4% higher. Bajaj Auto, Maruti, Titan, Asian Paints and State Bank were other gainers.  

Meanwhile, Titan Company on Thursday reported robust year-on-year earnings for the third quarter of the financial year 2021-22 (Q3FY22). The bottom line of the company was registered surging more than double, which eventually helped improving the margins during the quarter.   

Titan’s profit grew over 135 per cent to Rs 987 crore in October-December quarter of this fiscal as compared to Rs 419 crore in the same quarter a year ago, while revenue surged over 30 per cent to Rs 9515 crore in Q3FY22 as against Rs 7287 crore in a year ago quarter.