Closing Bell: Nifty ends around 17,800, Sensex plunges 980 pts; all sectors in the red
Domestic equities witnessed free fall as surge in covid cases around the globe has spooked investors. Nifty opened gap down and headed southwards below 18k zones. Broader market saw sharp decline with Nifty midcap 100 down 4% while Nifty smallcap 100 down 5% all sectors in the red.
Selling was seen across the sectors with PSU Banks, Metals, Oil & Gas and Realty bearing major brunt.
Going ahead, we expect further weakness in the equity given the worry over the potential risk from surging Covid and recessionary fears as central banks globally continue to remain hawkish.
We expect sectors like Entertainment, QSR, Hotels, Travel & Tourism to see decline as government has initiated various precautionary measures. However, any decline will be good opportunity to gradually accumulate fundamentally quality stocks.
Markets plunged sharply lower, in continuation to the prevailing corrective trend. After the gap-down start, Nifty gradually inched lower as the session progressed and finally settled closer to the day’s low to close at 17,806.8 levels.
The pressure was widespread wherein PSU banks, metal and energy stocks were hammered badly. The broader indices underperformed the benchmark.
Indications are pointing towards the prevailing corrective move to extend further, with a marginal rebound in between. Meanwhile, mixed global cues will keep the volatility high thus we recommend keeping a check on leveraged positions and preferring a hedged approach.
Amol Athawale, Deputy Vice President – Technical Research at Kotak Securities
Markets were caught in frenzied selling as weak global cues and bearish external factors pushed both the key benchmark indices below the psychological levels. Besides spurt in Covid cases in China & Japan, the better than expected US Q3 GDP numbers further raised concerns that the Fed will go for more rate hikes to tame inflation, which further accentuated selling pressure in the markets.
Technically, after a long time the index closed below the 50-day SMA (Simple Moving Average) and also formed a long bearish candle on weekly charts which is broadly negative.
For traders, as long as the index is trading below 18,000, the correction wave is likely to continue and below the same, the index could slip till 17,600-17,500. On the flip side, 18,000 could act as sacrosanct resistance zone. The dismissal of 18,000 could push the index till 50-day SMA or 18,150-18,200.
Market Close: Benchmark indices ended lower for the fourth consecutive session on December 23 with Nifty around 17,800.
At Close, the Sensex was down 980.93 points or 1.61% at 59,845.29, and the Nifty was down 320.50 points or 1.77% at 17,806.80. About 468 shares have advanced, 3018 shares declined, and 61 shares are unchanged.
Adani Ports, Adani Enterprises, Hindalco Industries, Tata Steel and Tata Motors were among the biggest Nifty red losers.
All the sectoral indices ended in the red.
The BSE midcap index lost 3.4 percent and smallcap index slipped 4 percent.
