Stock Market Today: Indian stock market indices Sensex and Nifty 50 extended their declines for the fourth consecutive trading day on Wednesday, May 29, closing down sharply by around 1% each on the backdrop of weakness in the global economy.
The stock market is falling into the hands of the bears ahead of the results of the Indian Lok Sabha elections scheduled for June 4. While experts expect volatility to remain high due to election-related fears, market sentiment remains fragile due to lack of fresh indications, weak global signals and concerns over geopolitical tensions.
The Nifty 50 opened at 22,762.75, down 125 points from the previous close of 22,888.15, and remained in negative territory throughout the trading session, hitting an intraday low of 22,685.45. The index eventually closed at 22,704.70, down 183 points or 0.80 per cent.
In the Nifty 50 index, 37 stocks fell.
Shares of HDFC Life Insurance Company (down 2.90 per cent), SBI Life Insurance Company (down 2.53 per cent) and Tech Mahindra (down 2.27 per cent) ended as the top losers in the Nifty 50 index.
Meanwhile, shares of Hindalco (up 3.52 per cent), Divis Labs (up 1.72 per cent) and Power Grid (up 1.29 per cent) ended among the top gainers on the Nifty 50 index.
The Sensex index opened 344 points lower at 74,826.94 against the previous closing of 75,170.45 and fell 716 points to 74,454.55 in intraday trade. The 30-stock index closed at 74,502.90, down 668 points or 0.89 percent, with 24 stocks losing.
Midcap and smallcap indices outperformed the benchmarks: the BSE midcap index fell 0.38 per cent while the smallcap index rose 0.23 per cent.
The total market capitalization of all BSE listed companies is approximately ₹4.15 million crores against almost ₹4.17 lakh crore in the previous session, which means that investors have lost around ₹200,000 crores per session.
Banking and financial stocks were the biggest losers, with the Nifty Bank index down 1.30% and the Financial Services Index down 1.65%.
Nifty Private Bank (down 1.36 per cent), Oil & Gas (down 1.01 per cent), IT (down 1 per cent), Real Estate (down 0.90 per cent), FMCG (down 0.54 per cent) and PSU Bank (down 0.49 per cent) also fell.
Why did Indian stock markets fall today?
Experts believe that the lack of fresh impetus and uncertainty over the outcome of the June 4 elections has led to increased profit-taking in the market.
Moreover, weakness in the global economy also weighed on domestic market sentiment.
“Weak global data led investors to take profits ahead of the release of US core PCE data, a key indicator of inflation, which is expected to pick up. Investors’ expectations of the US Federal Reserve (Fed) cutting interest rates in the near future are fading as global inflation continues to surge, with the latest developments in Japan and Australia,” said Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services.Hrishikesh Yedve, vice-president, technical and derivatives research, Ashit C Mehta Investment Intermediates, said the Nifty 50 confirmed a gloomy candlestick pattern, which led to profit-taking.
“On the downside, the 21 DEMA is near 22,567 and the 34 DEMA is near 22,480. Hence, 22,567 and 22,480 will act as support points for the index, while 22,800 and 23,110 will act as major hurdles in the short term,” Jedve said.
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