The domestic equity market closed deep in the red on Thursday. Markets extended losses for the fourth consecutive trading session amid heightened concerns over rising energy prices, volatile bond yields and the possibility of further monetary tightening.
The Sensex plunged 570.59 points, or 0.79 percent, to close at 71,909.70. On the other hand the Nifty fell 198.50 points, or 0.88 percent, to close at 22,421.95.
Investors suffered huge losses in the market crash as Rs 5 lakh crore was wiped off from the total market cap of all BSE-listed companies.
Among the Nifty constituents, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki India, and Shriram Finance emerged as the day’s biggest losers. Nifty MidCap 100 index was down by 1.01 percent. Nifty Smallcap 100 index ended 0.97 percent lower.
On the sectoral front, automobile, media, metal, and FMCG stocks bore the absolute brunt of the aggressive sell-off, with the Nifty Auto, Nifty Media, Nifty Metal, and Nifty FMCG indices ultimately recording the steepest declines among all sectoral gauges.
Pabitro Mukherjee, Deputy Vice President-Research, Bajaj Broking said, “Immediate bias in the index continues to remain down and a follow through weakness will signal extension of decline towards the 22,000 and CY2025 low of 21743.”
Mukherjee added, a move above Thursday’s high of 22,610 will signal a pullback towards the 22,800 and 23,000 levels. However, for a meaningful trend reversal index would require forming a sustained Higher High–Higher Low structure and reclaim the 23,000-23,100 level. Failure to move above 22,610 will lead to some consolidation in the range of 22,600-22,200 levels.
Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities. said, “sentiments continue to remain weak as the index closed below its 200-week moving average for the first time since the Covid crash. On the lower end, support is placed at 22,200, below which further correction towards 22,060 looks possible. On the higher end, resistance is placed at 22,600. The index will remain in a sell-on-rise mode as long as it remains below 22,600.”
