Stock Market Today: Sensex, Nifty End Lower After 7-Day Rally; FPIs Stay Net Sellers

Overseas investors stayed net sellers on Thursday for second consecutive session.

Foreign portfolio investors sold stocks worth Rs 1,564.03 crore, according to provisional data from the National Stock Exchange.

Domestic institutional investors turned net seller after a session of buying and sold stocks worth Rs 9.66 crore, the NSE data showed.

Foreign institutions have been net buyers of Rs 1,31,931 crore worth of Indian equities so far in 2023, according to data from the National Securities Depository Ltd., updated till the previous trading day.

The yield on the 10-year bond closed flat at 7.24% on Thursday.

Source: Bloomberg

Benchmark indices snapped a seven-day gaining streak today to end marginally lower as shares of Larsen & Toubro, Bharti Airtel, and ITC weighed on them.

However, the broader market indices outperformed with the Nifty Midcap 100 closing 0.6% higher and Nifty Smallcap 100 gaining 0.4% .

The Nifty ended 36.55points or 0.17% lower at 20,901.15 while the Sensex closed 0.19% or 132.04 points lower at 69,521.69.

Despite the fact that the Nifty 50 index fell on the first tick of the morning, the momentum towards downside bias could not conquest the sentiment, leading to a sideways trend, said Avdhut Bagkar, technical and derivatives analyst, StoxBox.

"The entire session was range bound, with higher side resistance acting at 20940 and lower support subsiding at 20860," he added.

Asian markets tracked comments from Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda, which raised concerns of sooner than expected shift from the country's negative interest rates policy, and closed lower on Thursday.

Ueda said that the monetary policy will become even more challenging from the year-end and heading into next year.

Following the comments, European markets also opened lower.

Shares of Bharti Airtel Ltd., ITC Ltd., Larsen & Toubro Ltd., Hindustan Unilever Ltd., and Infosys Ltd., led to the fall while Power Grid Corp. of India Ltd., HDFC Bank Ltd., Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd., UltraTech Cement Ltd., and Titan Co. Ltd., capped the downside.

Nifty Bank ended flat. Five sectoral indices gained, Nifty Energy rose the most. Nifty FMCG, Nifty Metal and Nifty IT fell.

BSE's broader markets also outperformed as the BSE MidCap rose 0.65%, while the BSE SmallCap was 0.28% higher. Six out of the 20 sectors compiled by the BSE declined while 14 advanced.

The market breadth was skewed in the favour of buyers. About 2,153 stocks gained, 1,602 fell, and 123 were unchanged.

Becomes the 6th Tata firm to cross Rs 1 lakh crore market cap.

• Bags order worth Rs 102 crore from Gujarat government for construction work in Gift City

• Emerges as lowest bidder for contract worth Rs 410 crore from Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation

Source: Exchange filing