RIL, HDFC duos drag Sensex 184 points lower; IT stocks see some recovery

The domestic equities ended in the red for the second session in a row on April 18, led by selling in index heavyweights Reliance Industries (RIL), HDFC duos and ICICI Bank. The S&P BSE Sensex closed the session at 59,727.01, down 184 points, or 0.31 per cent and the broader Nifty ended at 17,660.15, down 47 points, or 0.26 per cent.

IT stocks witnessed some recovery as the S&P BSE Information Technology index gained 0.48 per cent to 27,016.23 levels. Wipro and Infosys ended in positive territory; however, TCS settled flat with a negative bias.

Of 30 stocks on Sensex, 15 stocks ended in the red and the rest 15 in the green. HCL Tech (up over 2 per cent) was the top gainer on the index while PowerGrid (down over 2.6 per cent) was the biggest laggard. 

"The banking stocks pared their performance during the day while the market was grappling with the sell-off in the IT sector. However, the IT sector experienced a marginal relief rally, aided by bottom fishing, as the recent correction has made the sector attractive for long-term investment. The pharma sector also bucked the negative trend due to an improvement in outlook along with strong movements in mid and small-cap stocks," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

On the sectoral front, healthcare and realty stocks gained the most - both up over 1 per cent. On the contrary, utility stocks slumped the most with the S&P BSE Utilities ending 0.81 per cent lower at 2,881.09 levels.

Among individual stocks, Tata Chemicals ended over 6 per cent lower at Rs 931.90 apiece after the company cut the prices of soda ash in India. The Tata Group company has announced a reduction in the prices of light and dense soda ash by up to 4 per cent with effect from April 17, 2023. 

That apart, Just Dial shares gained in the trade after the local search engine platform reported a strong set of quarterly results. The Just Dial stock jumped as much as seven per cent to Rs 696.7 apiece on BSE. It ended at Rs 665.80, up 2.48 per cent.