Closing Bell: Sensex, Nifty end February series in red; Hindalco top gainer while Asian Paints biggest laggard

Closing Bell: Selling pressure in markets continued for the fourth straight session on Thursday as frontline indices S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50 ended the February series in the red. While Sensex closed the day at 59,605.80, down by 139.18 points or 0.23 per cent, the broader market Nifty50 settled at 17,511.25, down by 43.05 points or 0.25 per cent. Banking gauge Nifty Bank mnaged a flat ending at 40,001.55, up by 5.65 points or 0.01 per cent. Nine stocks advanced in the 12-share index.

In the 50-stock Nifty50, 24 stocks gained. The top gainers were Hindalco Industries, Coal India, Axis Bank, JSW Steel and Tata Motors while top losers were Asian Paints, Larsen & Toubro, Titan, Divi's Laboratories and Indusind Bank. 

Source: NSE

Source: NSE

India VIX, a measure of volatility in Nifty ended at 15.08, down by 3.28 per cent. 

Out of 15 Nifty Sectoral indices, 11 finished in the red. The top performing indices were Nifty PSU Bank (+0.53 per cent), Nifty Metal (+0.35 per cent) and Nifty FMCG (+0.26 per cent) while the worst performers were Nifty Realty (-1.78 per cent), Nifty Media (-1.77 per cent) and Nifty Consumer Durables (-0.88 per cent).

Profit booking prevailed in the broader markets as well. The Nifty Mid Cap 100 ended at 30,165.65, up by 45.35 points or 0.15 per sent. In the 100-stock index, 53 gained while 47 declined. The top gainers were The Indian Hotels Company, Polycab India and Federal Bank while the biggest losers were Vodafone Idea, Adani Wilmar and JSW Energy. Meanwhile, the Nifty Small Cap 100 index ended 7 points or 0.08 per cent lower at 9,237.65. The top gainers were Alok Industries, Bharat Dynamics and Zensar Technologies while the top losers were IRB Infrastructure, Indiabulls Housing Finance and Elgie Equipments.

Out of 3,599 stocks that traded on the BSE, advances were seen in 1,580, declines in 1,862 while 157 stocks remained unchanged. 72 stocks hit their 52-week high while 278 hit their 52-week lows.

The rupee appreciated by 15 paise to close at 82.73 (provisional) against the US dollar on Thursday, tracking its regional peers and lower crude oil prices, PTI reported. Forex traders said a muted trend in domestic equities and foreign fund outflows weighed on investor sentiments and restricted the appreciation bias. During the trading session, the rupee touched a high of 82.71 and a low of 82.79 against the dollar, the report said.

"The Indian rupee appreciated after two days of downtick on stronger regional peers and lower crude oil prices. After last night's February FOMC minutes, the US yields strengthen while the dollar has been quite muted," said Dilip Parmar, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities. "In the near-term, we believe spot USDINR to consolidate between 82.50 to 83 but the directional trend remains bullish as long as it holds 81.70," Parmar added. 

The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.02 per cent to 104.61.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures advanced 0.34 per cent to USD 80.87 per barrel, PTI reported.

Gold and Silver futures were trading muted. April Gold futures were trading at Rs 55,774 per 10 gram on the MCX, down by Rs 309 or 0.55 per cent while March Silver futures were trading at Rs 64,965 per, down by Rs 473 or 0.72 per cent.

Expert Take

"The Nifty opened on a positive note, however as the day progressed it witnessed selling pressure and closed the day in the negative for the fifth consecutive day. On the daily charts we can observe that the Nifty has reached the daily lower Bollinger band and is also trading around a rising trendline support derived at by joining the previous two swing lows which makes a case for a pullback over the next few trading sessions. The hourly momentum indicator has a positive crossover which is a buy signal. Thus, a bounce is likely however it is just a counter trend rally and the bounce is likely to face resistance around the 17665 – 17740 where resistance in the form of the key hourly moving averages are placed. Overall, the trend continues to be negative, and, on the downside, we expect the Nifty to target levels of 17300 from short term perspective." -- Jatin Gedia, Technical Research Analyst, Sharekhan by BNP Paribas