India's benchmark indices fell over half a percent on Thursday morning, battered by metals, realty and pharma stocks. The NSE Nifty 50 sank 160 points or 0.8 percent to 19,512.35 and the BSE Sensex tanked 544 points or 0.81 percent to 65,343.50 within an hour of opening of trade. According to analysts, the Israel-Hamas war, FII outflow, and weak Q2 performance of some of the companies dented market sentiment.
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The top laggard on the Nifty 50 was Wipro, which tumbled over 3 percent after disappointing Q2 results. HDFC Life, Power Grid, Coal India and Tata Steel also fell over 1.5 percent. On the sectoral front, Nifty Metal, Nifty Pharma and Nifty Realty lost up to 1 percent.
Foreign institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 1831.84 crore on Wednesday, and remained net-seller for the month till October 18, offloading equities worth Rs 12,774.46 crore so far this month.
According to Prashanth Tapse, senior vice-president of research analysis at Mehta Equities, the Nifty fell in the morning trade on the back of rising US Treasury yields beyond new highs and escalating tension between Israel and Hamas. Unabated selling from the FIIs also weighed on the market.
“The Nifty’s downside risk seen at its near term supports placed at 19,507/19,303 and intraday hurdles seen at the 19,771 mark,” Tapse said.
He expects volatility to rule the benchmark until some true in the Middle East, and advised investors to proceed carefully.
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