Mumbai. The BSE Sensex was in a marginal loss of 27 points amid volatility in the local stock markets on Thursday. Investors booked profits in the shares of major companies ahead of the June quarter results of the companies. The 30-share Sensex closed at 79,897.34 points, down 27.43 points or 0.03 percent.
There was a good rise in the initial trade and it climbed 245.32 points to reach the day’s highest level of 80,170.09 points. But later it came down due to selling in the shares of major companies and at one time it slipped to 460.39 points. The National Stock Exchange’s Nifty also closed at 24,315.95 points with a slight decline of 8.50 points i.e. 0.03 percent. During trading, it went up to 24,402.65 points and came down to 24,193.75 points.
Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services, said, “Both the benchmark indices traded in a limited range. The market seems to be struggling to justify the high valuation of stocks ahead of the first quarter financial results of companies. The quarterly results of companies are expected to be somewhat subdued.” Among the Sensex stocks, Bajaj Finance, Mahindra & Mahindra, Sun Pharma, Nestle, NTPC, Power Grid, UltraTech Cement and Larsen & Toubro were the major losers. The gainers include ITC, Tata Motors, Asian Paints and Titan.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) shares rose 0.33 percent before the company’s results. The company released the results after the market closed. The company’s consolidated net profit in the first quarter of the current financial year has increased by 8.7 percent on an annual basis to Rs 12,040 crore. During this period, the income has increased by 5.4 percent to Rs 62,613 crore.
Religare Broking Ltd. Senior Vice President (Research) Ajit Mishra said, “After a stable start, Nifty remained in a range and finally closed at 24,315.95 points. Meanwhile, investors appeared active with a mixed trend at the sectoral level. Under this, while the shares of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies were in profit, the shares of realty and pharma companies were in loss. The BSE Smallcap index, representing the shares of small companies, rose 0.57 percent, while the Midcap index related to mid-sized companies was in profit of 0.34 percent.
According to analysts, there was a slight increase in the smallcap and midcap indices. The reason for this is the change in FII (foreign institutional investors) flow and expectations about the budget. Nair said, “Investors are now looking at the inflation data to be released in the US. It is expected that the inflation rate will be somewhat soft. This may have a positive impact on the interest rate decision of the central bank US Federal Reserve.” In other Asian markets, South Korea’s Kospi, Japan’s Nikkei, China’s Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng were in profit.
There was a bullish trend during trading in major European markets as well. US markets were up significantly on Wednesday.
According to stock market data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 583.96 crore on Wednesday.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude rose 0.21 per cent to $85.26 per barrel.