Shares of Bharti Airtel, IndiGo, Ultratech Cement and Maruti Suzuki were among the top losers on Sensex in afternoon trade, while IT stocks like Infosys and HCL Tech posted gains. Notably, IT stocks have also wiped out some of their morning gains, with TCS slipping into the red.
Here are some of the key factors pushing the markets down today:
1) FII sales
The decline in stock markets comes as heavy selling by foreign investors may have dampened sentiment. Foreign institutional investors (FII) sold net Indian equities worth nearly Rs 3,466 crore earlier yesterday, according to NSE data.
Domestic institutional investors, however, remained net buyers of Indian equities, purchasing shares worth Rs 5,032 crore on Thursday.
2) Weak global markets
Wall Street’s tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index ended lower Thursday as the technology rally failed to maintain momentum. The world’s most valuable company, Nvidia, saw its share price fall 5%, a day after a sharp rise following better-than-expected quarterly results in January and high revenue expectations for the current quarter.
Shares of Google parent company Alphabet fell almost 2%, while shares of Amazon fell more than 1%. AMD shares fell more than 3%, while Salesforce shares rose more than 4% on strong gains. The Nasdaq Composite index closed more than 1% lower.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.16%, while South Korea’s Kospi fell about 1%. Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite, meanwhile, are in the green.
3) Tensions between the US and Iran
The US and Iran held indirect negotiations on Thursday over Iran’s nuclear program. However, the two countries have not yet reached an agreement, leaving room for concerns following increased tensions and expectations of a possible military conflict as US President Donald Trump-led administration has amassed a massive fleet of aircraft and warships in the region.Trump previously warned Iran that it must make a deal on its nuclear program within 10 to 15 days or “really bad things” will happen.
4) Rupee falls
The rupee fell slightly against the US dollar as increased demand for dollars put pressure on prices. The Indian rupee opened at $90.9475 against the US dollar, slightly lower than the previous closing level of $90.9050. In the afternoon it hovered around $90.5.
According to Bajaj Broking, Nifty had an immediate resistance at 25,650, which it has already broken. The domestic brokerage had said that only a move above this level would mark a pause in the current corrective trend.
“The index has been consolidating within a range of 25,350-25,900 over the past 9 sessions. A breakout or a breakout below this range will signal the next trend direction. Volatility is likely to remain high amid uncertain global cues. A break below Tuesday’s low 25,327 will open further downside towards the 200-day EMA and the previous gap-up area around the 25,100-25,200,” the report said. added.
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