While the Nifty traded flat at around 25,451.80 in early deals, the 30-share Sensex slipped 97.39 points, or 0.12%, to hover near the 82,400 mark.
The Nifty breadth was positive with 27 stocks trading in the green around 9:20 am, while the remaining 23 were in the red.
Top Gainers & Losers
The top gainers were ONGC, Bharat Electronics (BEL), Larsen & Toubro (L&T), Titan and Coal India while the losers included recently listed Kwality Wall’s (India), Infosys, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies and Wipro.
IT was the top sectoral laggard with the Nifty IT index slipping 1.5% in the early trade. Pharma & healthcare stocks also witnessed selling pressure.
Expert View
Commenting on the day’s action, Dr. VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments, attributed the correction to the US-Iran stand-off. This has also led to a spike in crude oil prices, raising fears of supply disruptions.
“The sharp spike in Brent crude to $72 reflects growing fear and uncertainty in markets. President Trump’s warning that ‘Iran has 10 to 15 days to strike a deal or bad things will happen’ has put the markets on tender-hooks. Whether there will be a deal after the standoff, or whether missiles will fly, will determine the market behaviour in the near-term. The continuing weakness in IT stocks is another dampener for the market,” Vijayakumar said.
Though he sees strength in the Indian economy and the recovery in corporate earnings as positives for the market, expecting a bounce back in the coming days.
His advice to investors is to wait and watch the unfolding developments in West Asia. However, for more optimistic investors, he recommends utilizing the current weakness to buy fairly valued high-quality stocks in banking and financials, autos, pharmaceuticals, hotels, leading capital goods and telecom. “Crisis have proved to be buying opportunities, in hindsight,” he added.
Global markets
Cues from US markets remained subdued as all frontline indices settled lower on Thursday. While Dow 30 closed at 49,395.20, down 267.50 points or 0.54%, the S&P 500 ended 19.42 points or 0.28% lower. The technology index Nasdaq Composite, closed 0.31% down at 22,682.70.
Asian markets were also in the red with Japan’s Nikkei 225 trading with cuts of 1.25%, the worst among major indices. China’s Shanghai Composite was also 1% down while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.6% around 11:58 a.m. HKST (9:43 am India time). Singapore was the only outlier, up 0.10%.
Currency Watch
Indian rupee (INR) opened 0.3% weaker against the US dollar at 90.94 versus the previous closing of 90.6675.
FII/DII Tracker
Indian markets ended with sharp cuts on Thursday as Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) pulled out money from Indian equities worth Rs 880 crore while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) moved in tandem, offloading shares worth Rs 596 crore.
Brent Oil
Crude oil prices continued on their upward trajectory amid an ongoing flare-up between the US and Iran on the issue of latter’s alleged uranium enrichment programme.
While the US WTI was trading at $66.780 per barrel, gaining by $0.350 or 0.53%, the Brent prices hovered around $71.94 mark, rising by $0.28 or 0.39%.