Sensex Slumps 400 Points, Ending 6-Day Rally

Mumbai, Feb 21 (PTI) Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty broke their six-day winning run on Wednesday and settled with a steep fall amid fag-end selling triggered by a rush for profit booking and mixed global cues.

The 30-share benchmark Sensex stayed mostly firm during intra-day but settled 434.31 points or 0.59 per cent lower at 72,623.09 points. It touched the intra-day low of 72,450.56, down 0.83 per cent from the previous closing level of 73,057.40 points.

Similarly, the broader Nifty also paired all its intraday gains before closing 141.90 points or 0.64 per cent down at 22,055.05 points.

The 50-share barometer had hit a lifetime peak of 22,196.95 points on Tuesday and remained mostly in the upward trajectory on Wednesday.

In the Sensex pack, 20 stocks ended in the red while 37 of the Nifty constituents closed the session with losses.

NTPC was the biggest loser among the Sensex constituents, ending with a loss of 2.71 per cent. It was followed by PowerGrid, Wipro, HCLTech, L&T and Tech Mahindra.

In contrast, Tata Steel, SBI, JSW Steel and IndusInd Bank closed in the positive territory. Tata Steel gained 1.99 per cent and SBI ended 1.51 per cent higher.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said the Indian market is facing stiff resistance at higher levels and the valuation of a broader index is at a significant premium, leading to an unfavourable risk reward, which influences investors to book profits.

"Global markets treaded cautiously awaiting the US Federal Reserve (meeting) minutes while Chinese markets were buoyed by policy interventions.

"Concerns lingered since investors were heavily betting on a US Fed rate cut, which is put at risk by January's higher-than-expected inflation," he noted.

The BSE Midcap index declined sharply by 1.27 per cent and Smallcap by 0.84 per cent. The fall in the large cap index was contained at 0.59 per cent.

Analysts attributed the steep decline in midcap and smallcap indices to investors' concern about volatility ahead of the release of US Fed minutes.

Among sectoral indices, BSE Utilities fell the maximum by 2.10 per cent, followed by Oil & Gas at a loss of 1.78 per cent and Power which went down by 1.66 per cent.

Teck, services and capital goods were the other losers.

BSE Realty was the only defiant among all sectoral indices, closing with a gain of 1.96 per cent.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, declined 0.68 per cent to USD 81.78 per barrel.

Asian stocks witnessed mixed trends while European markets were trading largely in the negative zone. The US stocks ended Tuesday's session with losses.

On Tuesday, Sensex continued its upward movement for the sixth straight session and jumped 349.24 points to close at 73,057.40 points while Nifty went up 74.70 points to end the day at 22,196.95 points.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net sellers on Tuesday as they offloaded securities worth Rs 1,335.51 crore, according to exchange data.