Sensex Falls 635 pts, Nifty Near 18,200; Dr Lal rallies 6% as Covid Surges in China, Japan

Sensex Today: Indian shares reversed course on Wednesday, ahead of the release of the Reserve Bank of India’s latest policy meet minutes and key macroeconomic data from the U.S., while fears of a recession linger. Markets, largely, saw a broad-based sell-off on the bourses on Wednesday with the S&P BSE Sensex falling 635 points, or 1.03 per cent, to end at 61,067. The Nifty50, meanwhile, settled at 18,207, down 180 points or 0.98 per cent.

Both the indices hit their respective intra-day low of 60,938 and 18,163. India VIX, the volatility gauge, jumped over 12 per cent.

Stocks fell across-the-board dragged by Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports, maruti Suzuki, britannia, IndusInd Bank, BPCL, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finaserv, and Axis Bank. Pharma and IT stocks were the only gainers on the bourses today led by Divis Labs, Apollo Hospitals, Cipla, Sun Pharma, HCL Tech, and Dr Reddy’s Labs.

Given this, the Pharma index advanced over 2 per cent today, followed by the IT index, up 0.7 per cent. On the downside, the PSU Bank and Metal indices fell over 2 per cent each.

The pain was more pronounced in the broader markets as the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices dropped 1.4 per cent and 2.18 per cent, respectively.

Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said: “The 185 pullback from the lows in Nifty yesterday is confirmation of the success of the strategy of buy on dips. Institutional buying – by both FIIs and DIIs – can trigger short covering in an oversold market. This might have contributed to the pullback yesterday. The near-term market construct is not favourable for equities. The rising Covid cases in the US, Korea, Brazil, and China is an area of concern. The situation is dire in China. This might impact market sentiments. Moreover, there are no near-term triggers to take the market higher. The next round of triggers will come only in January, starting with the Infy and HCL Tech results starting on 12th Jan. Even in a weak market-leading private sector banks and Reliance are likely to remain strong.”

Global Cues

Globally, the US equity markets snapped four-day losing streak and edged up overnight on strong earnings reports. Dow Jones, NASDAQ Composite, and the S&P 500 indices closed up to 0.2 per cent in trade.

Markets in Asia-Pacific, meanwhile, were mixed this morning as Nikkei 225, Topix, and Kospi indices fell up to 1 per cent. The S&P 200, Hang Seng, and Shanghai Composite indices, however, rose up to 1 per cent.

In the commodities market, Brent Crude hovered around $80 per barrel, up 0.2 per cent, whereas WTI Crude climbed over 1 per cent to $76 per barrel.

Read all the Latest Business News here