Sensex sheds 407 pts due to sell-off in banks, global peers; metals, midcaps shine

Fri Feb 09 2018
Rajesh Sharma (2046 articles)
Sensex sheds 407 pts due to sell-off in banks, global peers; metals, midcaps shine

The market reversed all its previous day’s gains on Friday, tracking global weakness on worries over US interest rate hikes. Benchmark indices shed more than 1 percent, dragged mainly by banking and financials.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 407.40 points or 1.18 percent at 34,005.76 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 121.90 points or 1.15 percent to 10,455.

Frontline indices lost another 3 percent during the week, in addition to 2.7 percent loss in the previous week; and this sharp correction was mainly due to global woes.

Majority of experts feel the fall is expected to continue, though there could be some bargain hunting intermittently in quality stocks which may support the market.

“Markets are currently dancing to the global tunes and we expect this to continue in near future. Indications are pointing toward further fall thus traders should prefer “sell on rise” approach,” Jayant Manglik, President, Religare Broking said.

He further said the Nifty has crucial support at 10,400 and its breakdown will trigger further fall. In case of any rebound, it would face stiff resistance around 10,600-10,700 zone, he added.

Nikhil Kamath, Co-Founder and Head of Trading, Zerodha said looking at the strength in Indian markets on the back of weak global cues, he is changing outlook from slightly bearish to neutral territory. “We would still not advocate entering fresh longs at this juncture.”

On the global front, Asian indexes ended sharply lower, following negative lead from Wall Street. Japan’s Nikkei, China’s Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 2-4 percent.

European markets – France CAC, Germany DAX and Britain FTSE were lower by 0.2-0.5 percent at the time of writing this article, as investors kept an eye on the turbulence seen across markets worldwide.

The broader markets, however, outperformed frontline indices. The Nifty Midcap ended with 0.2 percent gains. About 1,400 shares advanced against 1,358 declining shares on the BSE.

Rajesh Sharma

Rajesh Sharma

Rajesh Sharma is Correspondent for Stock Market of South East Asia based in Mumbai. He has been covering Asian markets for more than 5 years.