Sensex, Nifty fall for 6th consecutive session; Midcap outperforms, metals shine

Equity benchmarks closed flat with a negative bias after intraday volatility on Tuesday, but the broader markets outperformed throughout the session. The BSE Sensex fell a little over 170 points intraday amid geopolitical tensions between the US and North Korea, but recouped those losses in the last couple of hours of trade and turned rangebound.

Metals stocks hogged the limelight while ICICI Bank and Infosys helped the market recover losses. However, oil retailers and HDFC Group stocks saw selling pressure.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 26.87 points at 31,599.76 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 1.10 points to 9,871.50.

The volatility is expected to continue amid North Korea tensions, and ahead of expiry of September derivative contracts on Thursday, experts said. They don’t rule out a further fall.

“We feel markets will remain under pressure and traders should use the intermediate bounce to create fresh shorts. Also, they should focus more on the position management and prefer hedged trades, citing expected rise in volatility due to upcoming F&O expiry,” Jayant Manglik, President, Retail Distribution, Religare Securities said.

The Nifty is expected to trade within 9,700-10,000 range in near future, he feels.

The BSE Midcap index was up 0.4 percent and Smallcap gained 1 percent on positive market breadth. About 1,524 shares advanced against 997 declining shares on the exchange.

Meanwhile, the Indian rupee closed at a 6-month low of 65.45 against the US dollar today as foreign investors continued pulling out of Indian debt and equities on unfavourable cues from both India and abroad. It depreciated 35 paise from previous close of 65.10 to the dollar.

ONGC was biggest gainer, rising 4 percent after nearly 4 percent rally in Brent crude oil prices in the previous session. However, oil retailers and aviation stocks lost ground. BPCL, HPCL, Jet Airways and SpiceJet were down 2-5 percent.

The Nifty Metal outperformed sectoral as well as benchmarks and broader indices, rising 2.4 percent. Vedanta, Hindalco Industries and Tata Steel gained 2-4 percent.

Among others, ICICI Bank, Infosys, Axis Bank, Lupin and Coal India rose over a percent whereas Bharti Infratel, HUL, TCS and Dr Reddy’s Labs fell 1-4 percent, followed by HDFC (down 0.8 percent) and HDFC Bank (0.4 percent).

In broader space, Tata Global Beverages, Thermax, Ipca Labs, IFCI, Indiabulls Housing, Indiabulls Ventures, Avenue Supermarts, Edelweiss Financial, Future Consumer, Future Enterprises, Prestige Estates and Graphite India rallied 3-10 percent.
Global markets were mixed as the war of words between North Korea and the US escalated.