The S&P BSE Sensex fell 148.14 points, or 0.18%, to close at 83,311.01, while the NSE Nifty 50 dropped 87.95 points, or 0.34%, to end at 25,509.70.
On the 30-stock Sensex, shares of Power Grid, Eternal, BEL, Bajaj Finance, and ICICI Bank led the declines, slipping between 1% and 3%.
RIL climbed 1.6%, snapping a four-session losing streak.
Grasim Industries tumbled 6.3%, making it the biggest Nifty 50 laggard, after Rakshit Hargave, CEO of its paints arm Birla Opus, resigned to join Britannia Industries.
Meanwhile, rival Asian Paints jumped 4.7% after Nomura upgraded the stock to “buy” from “neutral,” noting that fears of disruption from Birla Opus had yet to play out.Adani Enterprises closed 4.4% lower, extending Tuesday’s losses, after posting a lower adjusted profit for the September quarter.The small-cap and mid-cap indices fell 1.4% and 1%, respectively.
Expert views
Volatility dominated the domestic market, with broad-based profit booking seen amid continued FII outflows, despite a supportive Asian market and early optimism from the inclusion of four Indian companies in the MSCI Global Standard Index and strong U.S. macro data was offset by weak domestic PMI readings, indicating softening sentiment, said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Investments.
“Most sectors traded lower, though IT stocks remained resilient, supported by in-line earnings and improvement in US macro data. Amid overall caution, selective buying emerged in fundamentally strong companies due to better-than-expected Q2 earnings,” said Nair.
Global Markets
European shares slipped on Thursday, diverging from gains in Asia and Wall Street earlier in the week. While major Asian markets rebounded sharply from recent tech-led selloffs, Europe’s session remained subdued.
The pan-European STOXX 600 fell 0.3%, dragged lower by an 11% plunge in French data-centre equipment maker Legrand, which fueled concerns over lofty tech valuations. Losses in Germany’s Commerzbank also weighed on financial stocks.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei rebounded 1.4% after a 2.5% drop on Wednesday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 2.1%, while South Korea’s Kospi, which had slumped 2.85% in the prior session, rose 0.8% after an early surge of more than 2%.
China’s Shanghai Composite reclaimed the key 4,000 level, buoyed by optimism over advances in domestic semiconductor and artificial intelligence sectors.
Crude impact
Oil prices edged higher on Thursday, recovering from two-week lows as sanctions on Russian firms eased fears of a potential supply glut.
Brent crude futures rose 65 cents, or 1%, to $64.17 a barrel by 0920 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate gained 73 cents, or 1.2%, to $60.33.
Rupee vs DollarThe Indian rupee ended largely unchanged on Thursday at 88.6125 against the U.S. dollar, caught between steady importer demand for the greenback and support from gains in other Asian currencies as risk appetite improved.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against six major currencies, slipped 0.23% to 99.83.
(with inputs from agencies)