By Siddhant Mishra
The equity benchmarks gave up gains on Tuesday, falling over 1% owing to the US Federal Reserve’s continued hawkish stance and cautious commentary by IT giant TCS.
Tata Motors led gains in the Sensex pack, zooming 6.07%, as the automaker posted a 13% year-on-year rise in global sales, and said that it continues to see strong demand for the Jaguar Land Rover. M&M edged up 0.34%, though Maruti shed over 1%.
IT stocks, except Wipro, ended in the red, as did all banking stocks, except IndusInd Bank. TCS shed over 1%, with the IT major missing profit estimates for Q3.
Among sectoral indices, metals, oil & gas, healthcare, and auto closed with gains, with all others closing in the red.
Both the BSE midcap and smallcap indices shed above 0.4% each, while the largecap index shed close to 1%. A total of 1,329 stocks advanced on the BSE while 2,189 stocks declined.
“Local investors have been following global cues, and the weakness in European and the US markets triggered a downfall in domestic equities, which saw the Nifty end below the crucial 18,000-mark. Trading sentiment has been very weak and most of the sluggish external factors are prompting investors to book profit at regular intervals. Technically, the Nifty has formed a long bearish candle on daily charts, indicating further weakness from the current levels. For bulls, 18,000 would be the key level to watch out for, and above the same, the index could re-test the level of 18,100-18,150,” Shrikant Chouhan, head of equity research (retail), Kotak Securities, said.
Tata Motors also led in the Nifty universe, rising almost 6%, with the metals sector shining as well. Adani Enterprises was the biggest laggard, sliding 5.67%. Banking and financial stocks closed in the red, except IndusInd Bank, which rose 1.01%.
Only the healthcare and auto indices edged up, with all other sectoral indices posting losses for the day. The Nifty PSU Bank was the biggest loser, down 2.67%, with the Bank Nifty and Nifty Financial Services shedding more than 1.3%.
DIIs continued to lend support, being buyers to the tune of Rs 1,806.62 crore, while FIIs continued their selling spree, withdrawing Rs 2,109.34 crore.