FINAL TRADE: Bulls take a breather after six-day run; Nifty slides to 22,055, Sensex sheds 434 pts dragged by IT, financial stocks

Stock market today: Domestic equity benchmarks Nifty50 and Sensex fell on Wednesday, February 21, snapping a six-day rally that helped the 50-scrip gauge reach a series of unprecedented levels, amid a fag-end sell-off in IT and financial shares though gains in metal shares lent some support.

Both headline indices dropped 0.6 per cent for the day. The Nifty index lost 141.9 points to end at 22,055.1, having reversed course after scaling an all-time high of 22,249.4 intraday trade, and the Sensex settled at 72,623.1, down 434.3 points from its previous close.

BPCL, NTPC, Coal India, Power Grid, Wipro, Infosys and Divi's, closing between 1.9 per cent and 3.7 per cent lower, were the worst hit among the 37 laggards in the Nifty50 basket. On the other hand, Tata Steel, SBI, JSW Steel and Sun Pharma, rising between 0.4 per cent and 2.1 per cent, were the top gainers.

The high-beta Nifty Bank index closed 74.5 points, or 0.2 per cent, lower at 47,019.7.

"The Indian market is facing stiff resistance at higher levels; the valuation of a broader index is at a significant premium, leading to an unfavourable risk reward, which influences investors to book profits," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

"Global markets treaded cautiously awaiting the US FED minutes, while Chinese markets were buoyed by policy interventions. Concerns lingered since investors were heavily betting on a US FED rate cut, which is put at risk by January's higher-than-expected inflation," he added.

Meanwhile, broader indices Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 declined 1.3 per cent and 1.0 per cent for the day, respectively.

Global markets

European shares began the day in the red, amid weakness in banking stocks after HSBC's disappointing earnings, while investors awaited region-wide consumer confidence data. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was down 0.4 per cent at the last count.

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