The Sensex on Friday fell 305.61 points to 62,978.58 in early morning trading, while the Nifty fell 79.65 points to 18,732.85. However, the rupee rose 18 paise to 81.08 against the US dollar in early trading.
Of the Sensex voters, 25 out of 30 were in the red. Mahindra and Mahindra, Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints, Bajaj Finance and HDFC were the biggest losers on the Sensex. However, Tech Mahindra, IndusInd Bank, Reliance, Tata Steel and Dr Reddy were trading in positive territory.
Domestic stock markets ended in positive territory for the past eight days through Thursday. The BSE Sensex, with 30 stocks rallying for the eighth day in a row, was up 184.54 points or 0.29 percent on Thursday to settle at 63,284.19, the new all-time high. During the day, it rose 483.42 points or 0.76 percent to 63,583.07, its lifetime intra-day peak. In eight days, the BSE benchmark has risen by 2,139.35 points or 3.49 percent.
The market capitalization of BSE-listed companies hit a new all-time high of Rs 289.88 lakh crore on Thursday after a sustained rally in stocks.
UK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said: “A key market positive that has helped global stock markets over the past few days has been the steady decline in the dollar index and US bond yields. This trend continues. The dollar index is now below 105 and the yield on US 10-year bonds is around 3.43 percent. Another important factor is the slowdown in manufacturing activity in the US in November.”
He added that this negative economic news is paradoxically positive news from a market perspective, as it indicates that the US economy is responding to the Fed’s monetary tightening. “So US inflation is likely to fall further, allowing the Fed to slow rate hikes and perhaps pause in the first quarter of 2023. This is positive for the market. At home, valuations are at a high level, even though there is momentum in our markets. Space for further PE expansion is limited. Therefore, the market is likely to consolidate around current levels.”
The rupee strengthened 18 paise to 81.08 against the US dollar in early trading on Friday.
Anand James, chief market strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said: “Early sell-off was strong enough to see the 81 environment encouraging bargain hunting. However, a push past 81.35 is needed to revive upside hopes. Otherwise, you can expect consolidation today, followed by 80.7 in a few days.”
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