Sensex falls over 100 points, Nifty below 17,400
Equity benchmark Sensex slipped over 100 points in early trade on Thursday, with losses in index majors ICICI Bank, HDFC Twins and ITC amid persistent foreign fund outflows.
Despite opening slightly higher, the 30-share index ended red at 58,215.45, down 125.54 points, or 0.22 per cent. Similarly, Nifty was trading at 17,384.90, down 30.15 points or 0.17 per cent.
ICICI Bank was the top laggard in the Sensex pack, falling nearly 2 per cent, followed by NTPC, Bajaj Finserv, HUL, Asian Paints, ITC and HDFC. On the other hand, Tech Mahindra, Reliance Industries, Kotak Bank and Infosys were among the gainers.
In the previous session, the Sensex was down 323.34 points or 0.55 per cent at 58,340.99 and the Nifty was down 88.30 points or 0.5 per cent at 17,415.05. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market as they sold shares worth Rs 5,122.65 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.
“In the ongoing bull-vs-bear battle in the market, the bait for the bears is sustained selling by FIIs, who have sold equities worth around Rs 18,000 crore during the last six days. This is in line with the sustained selling outlook of Geojit Financial Services. VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, said, “Most foreign brokerages that do valuations are raised.”
The strategy of ‘buy-on-dips’ that worked well since April 2020 is no longer working, he said, adding that valuations remain high even after this correction. Elsewhere in Asia, shares in Hong Kong and Tokyo were trading with gains in mid-session deals, while Shanghai and Seoul were negative.
Stock exchanges in the US ended the overnight session on a largely positive note. Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude fell 0.01 per cent to $82.24 a barrel.
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