Stock Market Breaks Rally, Sensex Dips Below 69,500, Nifty Trading Under 20,900

Sectorally, Nifty Realty and Pharma led the gains by 0.45 per cent and 0.33 per cent respectively. Among the losers, Nifty FMCG and Bank traded lower by 0.79 per cent and 0.51 per cent respectively.

The two key equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, on Thursday, ended their rally and dipped as markets opened. The BSE Sensex slipped 173 points and was trading at 69,480.67, while the NSE Nifty50 stood at 20,874.20, down by 63 points.

On the 30-share Sensex platform, Asian Paints, PowerGrid, UltraTech Cement, Maruti, and NTPC emerged among some of the early gainers. While, Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, Infosys, and Axis Bank were among the losers in morning trade. 

In the broader markets, indices mostly were trading in red. The Nifty Next 50 and Nifty Microcap 250 were among the few gainers with increases of 0.48 per cent and 0.18 per cent respectively. The Nifty Midcap Select led the losses and was trading lower by 0.25 per cent, followed by Nifty 100 and Nifty 200 among the losers.

Sectorally, Nifty Realty and Pharma led the gains and were up by 0.45 per cent and 0.33 per cent respectively. Among the losers, Nifty FMCG and Bank were trading lower by 0.79 per cent and 0.51 per cent respectively, followed by Private Bank and Financial Services.

Among specific stocks on the NSE, Adani Ports continued its rally for the week and gained over 1 per cent in morning trade. Other major gainers included Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, and Eicher Motors Ltd. 

In the previous session on Wednesday, the two key equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, continued rallying on the investor sentiment and touched new lifetime highs during the day. The BSE Sensex hit a fresh all-time high of 69,744.62 during the day, before settling at 69,653.73, a gain of more than 350 points. The NSE Nifty50 inched closer to reaching the 21,000 mark, and made a record high at 20,961.95, before finally closing at 20,937.65, up by almost 83 points. 

The domestic rupee depreciated 4 paise to reach 83.36 against the US dollar in early trade on Thursday. 

Global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading at $74.65 a barrel, up by 0.47 per cent.

Exchange data revealed that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 79.88 crore on Wednesday. V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said, "In spite of favourable factors such as steady decline in US bond yields, India's GDP growth rate, declining crude price and political stability, there will be dips in the market triggered by profit booking at higher levels. The Reserve Bank of India is expected to maintain the status quo on the interest rate in its bi-monthly monetary policy decision to be announced on Friday."