Stock Market Updates: Sensex, Nifty Trade Flat; Britannia Gains 3%, Eicher Extends Fall – News18

Key benchmark indices opened largely muted on Thursday tracking losses across global markets following US Fed’s hawkish minutes, which showed officials reaffirmed the need for more rate hikes ahead. The BSE Sensex fell 12 points to 65,434, and the NSE Nifty50 was unchanged at 19,403.

Eicher Motors, Tata Steel, Indusnd Bank, Maruti, Hindalco led losses across the two indices, dropping up to 1 per cent.

On the flip side, Britannia, Power Grid, Nestle, Ultratech Cement, Asian Paints and M&M were the top frontline gainers.

The broader markets continued their outperformance. The BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices rose up to 0.4 per cent versus nearly flat BSE Sensex index.

Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said: “An important trend in the market is the surge in retail investor participation as indicated by the sharp increase in new demat accounts ( 2.36 million) opened in June. New retail investors jumping on to the market bandwagon normally happens at the peak of a rally. This is a sign of caution.”

The FPI liquidity driven rally is showing signs of losing steam. Some of the leading indicators like credit growth for Q1 from banking majors like the merged entity HDFC Bank indicate a possible slowdown in the economy. Two-wheeler sales in June indicate that demand continues to be a problem in rural areas. In brief, the macroeconomic scenario, though good, is not so bullish as to warrant continuation of the rally, which has already run a bit ahead of fundamentals, he further said.

Investors should not chase low-grade small-cap stocks at this juncture. Stay invested in high quality large-caps. Wait for the Q1 results for direction, he added,

Global Cues

Tokyo stocks opened lower on Thursday, extending falls on Wall Street as minutes from the Federal Reserve’s June meeting signalled the possibility of more interest rate hikes ahead.The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 0.83 percent, or 277.77 points, at 33,060.93 in early trade, while the broader Topix index slipped 0.53 percent, or 12.18 points, to 2,293.85.

Wall Street’s main indexes ended with modest declines on Wednesday as investors digested minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s latest meeting and braced for significant economic data in the days to come.