Stock market today: The euphoria seen in early trade faded quite swiftly on Dalal Street on Tuesday, January 23, as the market came under heavy selling pressure in the noon trade and remained deep in the red till the end of the session.

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

All sectoral indices, barring healthcare, on the BSE ended in negative territory; however, some individual names defied the broader trend and stood tall. The Nifty index declined 333 points, or 1.54 per cent, to end at 21,238.8, and the Sensex slumped 1,053.1 points, or 1.47 per cent, to settle the session at 70,370.55.

It was the second straight day of fall for the indices.

The high-beta Nifty Bank index tanked 1,043.15 points, or 2.26 per cent, to close at 45,015.05, dragged by HDFC Bank and ten other declining stocks. Nifty Small Cap 100 and Nifty Mid Cap 100 were down 2.87 per cent, and 3.11 per cent, respectively.

IndusInd Bank, Coal India, SBI Life, and ONGC were among the top losers in the Nifty basket, down nearly 6-4 per cent. On the other hand, Cipla, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, and Dr. Reddy's were among the top gainers. The stock ended with gains in the range of 1–7 per cent.

"The market witnessed a continuous decline today, abruptly turning negative despite a positive start, mainly due to substantial selling in heavyweight sectors, particularly finance. Mid and small caps witnessed more decline compared to the main indices," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services, said.

"Selling by FIIs due to reasons like high valuation and mixed results for the earnings season so far, along with recent escalations in tensions in the Middle East and the Red Sea, prompted the investors to book profit from the recent rally. Going forward, markets are likely to witness stock-specific actions during the ongoing earnings season," he added.

Global Market

European equities edged lower on Tuesday as investors remained cautious ahead of the European Central Bank's (ECB) policy meeting later this week, while gains in mining stocks capped further declines.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index was down 0.2 per cent, as of 0925 GMT. Market participants eagerly await the ECB's monetary policy meeting, due on January 25, for clues on the interest rate trajectory and the timing of rate cuts.

Catch the latest stock market updates here. For all other news related to business, politics, tech and auto, visit Zeebiz.com.