Stock market update: Sensex down nearly 1%, Nifty below 18250-level; metal stocks drag – know reasons here

The Indian markets on Wednesday traded negative for the second straight session, amid profit booking. Supposedly both foreign and domestic investors have turned sellers as same as Tuesday. The selling pressure was majorly witnessed in metal stocks followed by auto and FMCG.

At around 02:38 pm, the BSE Sensex was down around 580 points or 0.95 per cent to 61132.55 levels, while Nifty50 declined over 197 points or 1.07 per cent to the 18221 mark, after opening flat today. Besides, in the broader markets, Mid-cap too slipped 622 points or 1.93 per cent to 31548.6 level today.

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Similarly, Nifty Bank, a key driver of the Nifty index, was in the green in an otherwise negative market. The banking index grew over 63 points or 0.16 per cent to 39,604.2 levels after opening negative earlier today. SBI, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank are mainly leading the surge in the Nifty Bank.

Out of 50 heavyweights in the Nifty index, 16 are advancing, while 34 are on a declining trend intraday today.  Hindalco cracked most being the top laggard, down 3.75 per cent, followed by Coal India, BPCL, and IOC each down near 3 per cent leading to the weakness in the overall market today.

According to a Reuters report, “China`s state planner said on Tuesday it was studying ways of intervening in high coal prices and would take all necessary measures to bring them back to a reasonable range, dragging industrial metal prices.

Shares of mining companies are directly correlated to the metal prices. Base and industrial metal prices have rallied in the past few days on concerns over mine supply disruptions due to higher energy costs.

India’s aluminium producers are drawing expensive power from the national grid, adding to pressure on utilities with low coal stocks as state-run Coal India curbs supplies, Reuters reported

While, stocks such as Titan, Hero MotoCorp, ONGC, Bajaj Finserv, and SBI Life each tumbled over 2 per cent on the NSE intraday today.

On the contrary, Bharti Airtel shares surged most in the otherwise negative market, up around 4 per cent on the back of launching a new video service platform ‘Airtel IQ Video’, followed by SBI up almost 3 per cent and Tech Mahindra up 1 per cent on the NSE intraday today.

Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, HCL Tech, IndusInd Bank surged between 0.5-1 per cent in the negative market today.

On the sectoral basis, almost all indices are in the red, except for Nifty Bank, as PSU stocks led by SBI lead the surge. Indices such as Nifty Metal, Pharma, Auto, FMCG dragged the market most. Similarly, in the broader markets, realty stocks slipped most, media and PSU stocks were in the green today.