Domestic equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty50 opened lower on Wednesday, as investors turned cautious ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium, seeking cues on the future trajectory of interest rates.
At 9:23 am, the BSE Sensex was trading 111.22 points lower at 81,533.17, declining 0.14 per cent after falling as much as 146 points in early trade. The NSE Nifty50 fell 35.15 points, or 0.14 per cent, to 24,945.50 after touching day’s low of 24,933.15.
Among Sensex stocks, Bajaj Finance led losers, falling 1.35 per cent to Rs 890.35. HCL Technologies declined 1.21 per cent. Other losers included Tata Motors (down 0.91 per cent), Trent (down 0.85 per cent) and Kotak Mahindra Bank (down 0.79 per cent)
Nazara Technologies shares fell 6.09 per cent to Rs 1,315.95 in Wednesday’s trade even after the company clarified in an exchange filing that the proposed Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025 will not have any material impact on its financial performance, as the company has no direct exposure to real money gaming (RMG) businesses.
VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments Limited, said the three-day 364-point rally in the Nifty came in response to the unexpected announcements relating to GST reforms which are likely to happen before Diwali.
“The market has been responding to the potential demand boost to sectors like automobiles, FMCG, insurance and select financials which are expected to benefit from the GST rationalisation. Improvement in India-China relations also have contributed to the rally,” Vijayakumar said.
Vijayakumar said that there is no scope for a sustained rally since the August 27th deadline for the 25 per cent secondary tariff on India is fast approaching, and the news coming from the Trump administration is not positive. President Trump’s tariff policy, totally devoid of logic and fairness, and driven solely by personal likes and dislikes, may continue. This will have negative implications for India in the short-term, and the market will have to discount that, too.
“In the short-term, investors may focus on domestic consumption themes like banking and financials, telecom, hotels, healthcare, automobiles and cement, particularly the fairly valued segments,” Vijayakumar added.
Regaal Resources made its debut on Dalal Street on Wednesday. The speciality agro-products player had raised Rs 306 crore through its IPO at Rs 102 apiece, with a lot size of 144 equity shares.
On Tuesday, the BSE Sensex was up 370.64 points, or 0.46 per cent, at 81,644.39. The NSE Nifty50 advanced 103.70 points, or 0.42 per cent, to settle at 24,980.65.