Major benchmark indices started lower in Thursday’s session in a highly volatile week as oil prices rose sharply near $120 a barrel. At 9:16 AM IST, the Sensex fell 399.34 points or 0.69 percent at 57285.48, and the Nifty fell 117.00 points or 0.68 percent at 1712.70. About 790 shares have moved up, 930 shares have fallen and 99 shares have remained unchanged.
Of the Sensex-30 stock, Dr. Reddy’s, Tata Steel, TCS, Tech M, HCL Tech, NTPC and Infosys the biggest winners. Coal India, Hindalco, ONGC, JSW Steel were the winners on the Nifty.
On the other hand, Kotak Bank, ICICI Bank, Asian Paints, Bajaj Finance, Maruti, SBI, HDFC Bank and Tata Motors meanwhile fell to 3 percent, pushing the first indices lower.
In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices were also in negative territory, down 0.19%.
Of the sectors, Nifty Banks, Financials and Auto indices suffered significant losses and traded up to 1 percent lower. On the other hand, Metal and Energy pack were the best outperformers.
Within individual stocks, Zee Entertainment rose 15 percent after its largest shareholder Invesco said it will not pursue an EGM to add six independent directors to Zee’s board of directors because it supported the merger between the company and Sony.
Kotak Bank, on the other hand, was the biggest loser in exchanges, falling more than 3 percent. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) plans to redeem a 2.02 percent stake in the private lender on Thursday.
The surge in Brent oil comes amid a possibility of an EU ban on Russian oil and gas as Western leaders will meet in Brussels today to plan more measures to pressure Russia to end its conflict in Ukraine. to end. Markets may see further volatility due to the weekly F&O expiration on Thursday.
VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said: “The market has no direction right now, moving up or down daily in response to crude price news, FPI flows and speculation about what the Fed could do in the coming months. Nifty is likely to go into the 17000 – 17500 range in the near term. A break above this range could occur if there is positive news from the war front that could send the price of crude oil plummeting. If oil remains high for an extended period of time, it will affect Indian GDP growth and push inflation up.”
“Security is now in IT and pharmaceuticals, which are shielded from high crude prices and high inflation. The FMCG and cement segments will experience margin pressure. High quality financials are in a good place,” added Vijayakumar.
Global clues
Hong Kong stocks opened lower Thursday after losses on Wall Street after Federal Reserve officials signaled that aggressive monetary policy was needed to contain inflation. The Hang Seng index fell 0.71 percent, or 156.95 points, to 21,997.13. The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.48 percent, or 15.70 points, to 3,255.33, while the Shenzhen Composite Index fell 1.01 percent, or 21.91 points, on China’s second exchange to 2,141.29.
Tokyo stocks opened lower on Thursday, tracking falls on Wall Street as inflation concerns mount and oil prices soar. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 1.27 percent or 355.28 points to 27,684.88 in early trading, while the broader Topix index fell 1.01 percent or 20.01 points to 1,958.69. The dollar gained 121.17 yen in early Asian trading, from 121.12 yen in New York late Wednesday.
US stocks fell globally on Wall Street and crude oil prices rose sharply again on Wednesday, as a wave of sales virtually wiped out gains from the day before and sent the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average into the red for the week . The S&P 500 fell 1.2 percent, with more than 80 percent of stocks in the benchmark index closing lower. The Dow and Nasdaq composite were each down 1.3 percent.
Read all the latest news, breaking news and the war between Ukraine and Russia here.
