Stock Market Ends Two-Day Rally; Sensex Slips 110 Points, Nifty Below 16,250 Amid Volatile Trade

Stock update: On the BSE, HUL was the lead gainer with 2.02 per cent followed by UltraCemco, Asian Paints, Sun Pharma, ITC, and others. On the flip side, PowerGrid was the top loser with 4.55 per cent

New Delhi: The key equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, on Wednesday snapped their two-session winning run after the market turned volatile after the afternoon session and eventually ended in the red. Investors’ spooked by the UK’s inflation rate as it hit 9 per cent in April, a 40-year-high.

The 30-share BSE Sensex slumped 110 points (0.20 per cent) to close at 54,209, while the broader NSE Nifty moved 19 points (0.12 per cent) down to settle at 16,240.

On the Sensex platform, HUL was the lead gainer with 2.02 per cent followed by UltraCemco, Asian Paints, Sun Pharma, ITC, and others. On the flip side, PowerGrid was the top loser with 4.55 per cent. The other laggards were TechM, SBI, L&T, Bajaj twins, and others.

In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap index dipped 0.13 per cent while the BSE SmallCap index added 0.33 per cent.

On NSE, 12 out of the 15 sector gauges settled in the negative zone. Sub-indexes Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty IT underperformed the index by falling as much as 1.57 per cent and 0.47 per cent, respectively.

On the BSE, the overall market breadth stood positive as 1,918 shares advanced, while 1,428 declined.

In the previous trading on Tuesday, the BSE Sensex zoomed 1,344 points (2.54 per cent) to end at 54,318, while the NSE Nifty rallied 417 points (2.63 per cent) to settle at 16,259 points.

"With the support from Pharma and FMCG stocks, the domestic market had a steady run until the weak opening of the European market. UK's soaring retail inflation number along with Fed Chair's reassurance on bringing down the inflation, disturbed the sentiment, risking sharper rate hikes," Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services, told the PTI.

On the other hand, in Asia, markets settled on a mixed note, with Seoul, Hong Kong, and Tokyo ending in the green, while Shanghai was lower.

Equity exchanges in Europe were also trading on a mixed note in the afternoon session.

Stock exchanges in the US had ended significantly higher on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, global oil benchmark Brent crude gained 1.13 per cent to $113.2 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors continued in selling mode, offloading shares worth a net Rs 2,192.44 crore on Tuesday, according to stock exchange data.