Sensex falls over 200 pts, Nifty below 25,900 as foreign flow woes linger
Indian stock markets began Tuesday on a down note. The Sensex and Nifty continued their recent decline. Investors remained cautious. This was due to quiet year-end trading. Concerns about foreign fund flows also kept markets subdued. Trading volumes were thin. Risk appetite was limited.
Indian equities opened lower on Tuesday, with the Sensex and Nifty extending their recent slide as muted year-end trading and persistent unease over foreign fund flows kept investors on the sidelines.
The BSE Sensex declined 204 points, or 0.24%, to trade at 84,491.20, while the NSE Nifty 50 slipped 58.65 points, or 0.23%, to 25,883.45, reflecting a cautious start amid thin volumes and limited risk appetite.
On the 30-stock Sensex, shares of Eternal, Larsen & Toubro, UltraTech Cement, Tata Steel and HCL Technologies were among the top decliners, sliding between 0.5% and 2%.
Broader markets were subdued, with small-cap and mid-cap stocks largely unchanged.
The Nifty has fallen about 0.9% over the past three sessions, while the Sensex is down roughly 1% across four sessions, as profit-taking in thin year-end trade weighed on sentiments.
Expert views
The year-end trend, though weak, doesn’t indicate a directional change in the market and the advance-decline ratio was far in favour of declines, and this led to decline in Nifty by 100 points yesterday, said Dr. VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments, adding that it is important to note that this decline happened on thin volumes.
"A clear directional change will happen only early in the new year when large institutions are back in action. It would be better for investors to watch the market now and wait for new triggers and new directional moves. However, weakness in the market can be used to nibble at high-quality large caps," said Vijayakumar.
The auto sales numbers expected in two days will give an indication of the sustainability of the consumption boom in the economy, Vijayakumar said, adding that this is significant from the economic growth perspective, too.
FII/DII Tracker
On the institutional front, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) sold equities worth nearly Rs 2,760 crore on December 29, while Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) were net buyers to the tune of Rs 2,644 crore.
Global Markets
Asian equities edged lower on Tuesday, following a selloff in U.S. technology stocks, while gold and silver steadied after a sharp pullback from record highs drained momentum from a blistering rally in precious metals.