Markets give up intra-day gains; fall for 3rd day – Times of India

MUMBAI: Equity benchmark indices pared their intra-day gains and ended lower on Thursday, pulled down by index majors ITC and State Bank of India after their fourth quarter earnings failed to cheer investors.
After trading in the green for most part of the day, the 30-share BSE Sensex declined 128.90 points or 0.21 per cent to settle at 61,431.74. During the day, it hit a high of 61,955.90 and a low of 61,349.34.
The NSE Nifty fell 51.80 points or 0.28 per cent to end at 18,129.95.
“Nifty closed lower for the third consecutive day on Thursday, going against the positive global trends after giving up the opening gains,” said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities.
Among the Sensex firms, ITC, SBI, Titan, Power Grid, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Motors, Hindustan Unilever and UltraTech Cement were the major laggards.
Shares of ITC fell 2 per cent even as the company reported a 22.66 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 5,225.02 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 2023.
SBI declined 1.77 per cent despite the country’s largest bank reporting an 83 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 16,694.51 crore for the fourth quarter of 2022-23 fiscal on higher interest income and low provisioning.
Bajaj Finance, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, Asian Paints, HCL Technologies, HDFC and HDFC Bank were among the biggest gainers.
“Markets traded volatile on the weekly expiry day and ended marginally lower. Firm global cues triggered a gap up start, however profit-taking in the select index majors trimmed the gains as the day progressed. It is a healthy consolidation so far, however, volatility across sectors is keeping traders on their toes,” said Ajit Mishra, VP – Technical Research, Religare Broking Ltd.
In the broader market, the BSE midcap gauge declined 0.67 per cent and smallcap index dipped 0.26 per cent.
Among the indices, realty declined 2.29 per cent, services fell 1.60 per cent, power (1.43 per cent), utilities (1.39 per cent), FMCG (1.06 per cent), capital goods (1.01 per cent) and commodities (0.86 per cent).
Financial Services and bankex were the gainers.
In Asia, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong markets ended in the green.
European markets were also trading higher. The US market had ended with significant gains on Wednesday.
“Domestic markets underperformed Asian peers as profit-taking entered for the third straight session, with investors maintaining risk-on sentiment in the wake of a sharp spike in valuation following the recent upsurge. Bearishness is also seen due to caution over the US debt-ceiling deal and signs of slowing demand in China,” said Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities Ltd.
On Wednesday, optimistic US President Joe Biden declared that he is confident the US will avoid an unprecedented and potentially catastrophic debt default, saying talks with congressional Republicans have been productive.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) continued their buying activity as they bought equities worth Rs 970.18 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.
Meanwhile, global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.61 per cent to USD 76.49 per barrel.
Falling for the second straight session on Wednesday, the 30-share BSE benchmark declined 371.83 points or 0.60 per cent to end at 61,560.64. The Nifty fell 104.75 points or 0.57 per cent to settle at 18,181.75.