Mumbai. The local stock market closed with a slight decline for the fifth consecutive trading session on Thursday due to selling in the shares of metal, banking and financial companies amid a softening trend in global markets. Investors have been withdrawing their investments since the announcement of increasing the securities transaction tax (STT) and tax on short-term capital gains in the budget. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have also withdrawn from the Indian market on a large scale. Like the last few sessions, there was a lot of volatility in the market on Thursday as well.
The BSE benchmark index Sensex, based on 30 shares, closed at 80,039.80 points with a fall of 109.08 points or 0.14 percent. During trading, at one point it had fallen by 671 points to 79,477.83 points. But the rise in the shares of Tata Motors and Larsen & Toubro stopped the decline in the market to some extent. The benchmark index Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also fell by 7.40 points or 0.03 percent to 24,406.10 points. During trading, at one time it had fallen by 202.7 points to 24,210.80 points.
In this way, the local stock markets declined for the fifth consecutive trading session. In these five sessions, the Sensex has declined by a total of 1,303.66 points i.e. 1.60 percent and the Nifty has declined by a total of 394.75 points i.e. 1.59 percent. Prashant Tapase, Senior Vice President (Research) at Mehta Equities Limited, said, “The market was initially affected by the decline in the US market, but by the end it made up for its losses. Buying in oil and gas, vehicle stocks played an important role behind this. Despite the concerns arising over the increased valuation of the Indian market, investors are focusing on sectors with better fundamentals.”
Among the Sensex stocks, Axis Bank fell by more than five percent. Actually, the June quarter results of Axis Bank failed to please the investors. Apart from this, shares of Nestle, Titan, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, IndusInd Bank, ITC, JSW Steel and State Bank of India also closed with a decline. On the other hand, Tata Motors registered a gain of about six percent. Shares of Larsen & Toubro, Sun Pharma, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bajaj Finance and Power Grid also remained in the lead. In the broader market, the BSE Midcap index fell by 0.22 percent and Smallcap by 0.14 percent.
Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services, said, “The markets closed more or less at a stable level at the end of a volatile session. Efforts to boost consumption and energy transition in the budget led to a positive sentiment in this sector.” In other Asian markets, South Korea’s Kospi, Japan’s Nikkei, China’s Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed with a decline. European markets were trading with a decline. US markets saw a significant decline on Wednesday.
According to stock market data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have continued to withdraw from the Indian market. They made a net sale of shares worth Rs 5,130.90 crore on Wednesday. Global oil benchmark Brent crude fell 1.73 percent to $ 80.31 per barrel. On Wednesday, the BSE Sensex fell 280.16 points to 80,148.88 points and the NSE Nifty closed 65.55 points lower at 24,413.50 points.