The Indian equity benchmarks edged lower on Friday, August 21, as investor sentiment turned cautious tracking a surge in crude prices in lobal markets.
The SENSEX fell as much as 89 points and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday low of 24,210 led by losses in index heavyweights like Reliance Industries, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hindustan Unilever, HCL Tech and ITC. However, the losses were capped owing to buying interest in HDFC Bank, Eternal, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and State Bank of India.
As of 9:30 am, the SENSEX was down 34 points at 77,504 and NIFTY50 index declined 11 points to 24,222.
Most of the Asian markets were trading higher. China’s Shanghai Composite index rose 0.09%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng advanced 0.7%, South Korea’s KOSPI gained 1.2% while Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.4%.
Overnight, US stock ended sharply lower on Thursday as oil prices, worries about high inflation and the US government’s rising debt kept investors cautious.
Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.32%, S&P 500 index declined 0.9% and tech heavy Nasdaq dropped 1%.
Brent crude futures rose as much as 0.46% to an intraday high of $94.21 per barrel after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that Washington will impose the “toughest sanctions in history” to “collapse” the Iranian government, calling on other nations, including China, to join the effort.
Back home, eight of 15 major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange (NSE) were trading lower led by the NIFTY IT index’s 1% fall. NIFTY FMCG, Auto, Pharma, PSU Bank, Healthcare, Consumer Durables and Oil & Gas indices also fell between 0.2% and 0.6%.
On the other hand, metal and private banking shares were witnessing buying interest.
Broader markets were trading on a mixed note as NIFTY Midcap 100 index fell 0.24% while NIFTY Smallcap 100 index surged 0.57%.
Among the individual shares, Welspun Corp surged as much as 12.27% to hit an intraday high of ₹2,250 after the company informed exchanges that its secured the largest single order in its history, valued at approximately $1.8 billion (₹17,200 crore), for the supply of pipes from its manufacturing facility in the United States of America.
Kotak Mahindra Bank was top gainer in the NIFTY50 index, the stock rose 2% to ₹405. HDFC Bank, Bharat Electronics, Hindalco, State Bank of India, Power Grid, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, Mahindra & Mahindra also rose between 0.2% and 0.9%.
On the flip side, IndiGo, Grasim, Titan, Bajaj Auto, Apollo Hospitals, Max Healthcare, Trent, JSW Steel, HDFC Life, Cipla and Maruti Suzuki were top losers in the NIFTY50 index.
The overall market breadth was positive as 1,866 shares were declining while 1,212 were advancing on the NSE.