Sensex sheds 80 points, Nifty below 17,500; NTPC, HCL Tech fall up to 2%

NEW DELHI: Benchmark indices fell in Wednesday's trade ahead of a CPI inflation data in the US later in the day. Oil prices dropped and the rupee strengthened against the US dollar, helping key indices eke out small gains at open. But they soon fell into the red, tracking global cues, as Asian markets were down up to 2 per cent in morning trade.

At 9.30 am, the BSE Sensex was trading 78.67 points or 0.13 per cent lower at 58,774.40. Nifty50 was trading at 17,496.20, down 28.90 points or 0.16 per cent. The midcap and smallcap indices edged up to 0.16 per cent higher.

"Sensex and Nifty are unlikely to surpass the previous highs because valuations have become expensive and, therefore, there will be selling pressure at higher levels. Nifty50 is now trading at around 20 times FY 23 estimated earnings. High valuation will cap the rally," VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Tuesday marked the ninth out of the last 10 sessions when the domestic indices moved north.

"A major positive for India is that FIIs, who were relentless sellers from October 2021 to June 2022, have turned buyers in July and the buying momentum continues in August with net buying of Rs13,801 crore till 8th August. FIIs have turned buyers mainly because the dollar has stopped appreciating and started depreciating. (Dollar index has declined from above 109 to 106)," Vijayakumar said.

Among Sensex stocks, ICICI Bank climbed 1.51 per cent to Rs 849. Sun Pharma, Nestle India and Bharti Airtel advanced 1.4 per cent, 1 per cent and 0.9 per cent, respectively.

Reliance Industries, Hindustan Unilever, Power Grid, Dr Reddy's Labs and IndusInd Bank added up to 0.6 per cent. Losers included NTPC, HCL Tech and Bajaj Finance, which declined up to 2.4 per cent. Wipro, Infosys and Asian Paints fell up to 0.8 per cent.

"Traders can continue with their buy on decline strategy but one should avoid being complacent as a momentum trader. Markets are continuing with their vertical move and in such scenario, we do not get any swing lows which generally refer to a strong base," said Sameet Chavan of Angel One.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views, and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)