Mumbai. The trend of decline in local stock markets continued on Thursday and BSE Sensex fell further by 111 points in volatile trading. There was a decline in the market due to continued selling by foreign institutional investors, quarterly results of companies not being as per expectations and rising inflation.
The 30-share BSE Sensex declined for the third consecutive day and closed at 77,580.31, down 110.64 points or 0.14 percent. During trading, at one time it had fallen to 266.14 points. National Stock Exchange’s Nifty also closed at 23,532.70 points with a decline of 26.35 points or 0.11 percent. Nifty declined for the sixth consecutive day.
Among the 30 Sensex stocks, Hindustan Unilever, NTPC, Nestle, IndusInd Bank, Power Grid, Adani Ports, Tata Motors and Bajaj Finserv were major losers. On the other hand, the profitable stocks include Reliance Industries, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tech Mahindra, Mahindra & Mahindra and HDFC Bank.
According to stock market data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 2,502.58 crore on Wednesday. Whereas domestic institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 6,145.24 crore. Vinod Nair, head of research, Geojit Financial Services, said, “Trading in the market was light. However, some stability was observed throughout the business. But there remains uncertainty regarding the stability trend as FIIs continue to be sellers. The positive aspect is that the pace of their selling is now slowing down.” According to official data, wholesale price index-based inflation rose to a four-month high of 2.36 percent in October. The main reason for this was the rise in prices of food items, especially vegetables and manufactured goods.
At the same time, mainly due to increase in prices of food items, retail inflation reached a 14-month high of 6.21 percent in October. This is more than the satisfactory level (two to six percent) of the Reserve Bank of India. Mehta Equities Ltd. Prashant Tapse, Vice President (Research), said, “The trading in the market remained limited. Sentiment was affected by selling in FMCG, oil and gas and power stocks. “Despite the mild trend, losses were limited due to selective buying in realty, auto, bank and telecom stocks.” The BSE Smallcap index, comprising shares of small companies, rose 0.83 per cent, while the Midcap index, comprising shares of medium-sized companies, gained 0.41 per cent.
In other markets of Asia, Japan’s Nikkei, China’s Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng were in loss while South Korea’s Kospi was in gain. There was a brisk afternoon trading in the major markets of Europe. There was a mixed trend in American markets on Wednesday.
Global oil standard Brent crude fell 0.06 percent to $ 72.24 per barrel. The Sensex had fallen 984.23 points on Wednesday, while the Nifty had fallen 324.40 points. Stock markets will remain closed on Friday on the occasion of ‘Guru Nanak Jayanti’.