Indian equities ended the day in the red as the economic outlook worsened globally, which overshadowed the stimulus package announced by the finance minister. Benchmarks mimicked global trend on Thursday with the 30-share index Sensex falling 885.72 points to close at 31,122.89. The broader Nifty fell by 240.8 points to close at 9,142.75. Index heavyweights like the HDFC twins, Infosys and RIL fell on Thursday, losing anywhere between 3 and 5%.
Asian stocks tanked on Thursday with exchanges in South Korea, China and Hong Kong declining 0.8% to 1.45%. European markets were also declining at the time of press with bourses in France, Germany and the UK down between 2.7% and3.3%
FPIs remained net sellers on Thursday, pulling out $284.86 million from Indian equities, provisional data showed. DIIs bought Indian equities worth $106.17 million. Thursday’s weekly expiry showed strong volumes in the F&O segment on NSE, which witnessed a turnover of Rs 23.82 lakh crore against the six-month average of Rs 14.21 lakh crore. The cash market saw volumes of Rs 48,694.51 crore against the six-month average of Rs 40,898 crore.
Deepak Jasani, head – retail research, HDFC Securities, said, “Indian benchmark indices wiped out all the previous session gains with Nifty ended below the 9,150 level on May 14 due to unenthusiastic response to the relief package announcements and amid weak global cues.”
According to a report by Credit Suisse, the Indian markets have been taking directional cues from S&P 500 for 70% of the days this year. Global markets have been declining for the last three sessions. Nomura in its report stated that it continued to be bearish on growth in India.
The biggest losers on Nifty were Tech Mahindra, Infosys, Hindalco, HDFC, and GAIL, down 5.3%, 5.1%, 4.8%, 4.47% and 4.3%. The biggest gainers were Bharti Infratel, Hero MotoCorp, Zee Entertainment, L&T and Maruti Suzuki, up 4.3%, 2.6%, 2.1%, 1.87% and 1.37%, respectively. The biggest sectoral losers were Nifty IT, Nifty Financial Service, Nifty Bank, Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Private Bank. The biggest gainers were Nifty FMCG and Nifty IT. Among the broader indices, Nifty Midcap declined by 0.35% and 0.9%.
