Stock Market Closing: Nifty Slips below 17,800, Sensex tanks 600 points; IT, Pharma drag most

Domestic equity markets witnessed bears taking control of the Dalal Street for the third consecutive day amid FIIs selling pressure and weak global cues. The benchmark indices made some last minutes recovery to end 1 per cent lower on Thursday. The broader Nifty50 slipped below 17, 700 during the day, while the Sensex corrected by nearly 1000 points. The two indices dipped by 1.01% and 1.06% to end Thursday on 17,757 and 59,464.62 respectively. as they bounced back minutes before closing to provide some cushion to the falling market.

Globally, SGX Nifty tanked 200 points to trade lower by 1.11% to 17,777.50 around 3.25 pm on the Singaporean exchange.  

"The Indian equity market is showing weakness for the third day in a row on the back of FIIs' selling, rising US bond yields, and concerns of inflation however this is just a correction that should be taken as a buying opportunity," said Parth Nyati, Founder, Tradingo. 

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He said Nifty is trading near critical support of 17650 which was the previous breakout level while 17500 is another important support level. On the upside, 18000-18200 is an immediate resistance area; above this, we can expect a move towards an all-time high, said Nayati. 

"The texture of Bank Nifty is strong and it may outperform from here and I believe we can expect strong earnings by banking names," he added.  

All broader market indices, except for Nifty Microcap 250, ended in the red, while Metal and Realty were the only two sectors that surprised the market with positive closing on Thursday.  

Bajaj Fin Serv, Bajaj Auto, Divis Labs, Infosys, TCS, Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy's, HCL Tech, Hindustan Unilever, HDFC Limited, Reliance Industries declined up to nearly 5 per cent.  

In a falling market, Powergrid surged up to 5 per cent. Besides, Bharti Airtel, Grasim, JSW Steel, Asian Paints, Ultratech Cement, Maruti and ICICI Bank gained in otherwise negative market. 

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows to India in 2021 were 26 per cent lower, mainly because large M&A deals recorded in 2020 were not repeated, the UN trade body has said.  

The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Investment Trends Monitor published on Wednesday said global foreign direct investment flows showed a strong rebound in 2021, growing 77 per cent to an estimated USD 1.65 trillion, from USD 929 billion in 2020, surpassing their pre-COVID-19 level.