Mid-day Mood | Market falls on Moody’s US downgrade, Nifty below 19,450

Stock Market Today

Equity benchmarks the Sensex and the Nifty on November 13 gave up gains of the previous day's Diwali Muhurat trading, pulled down by information technology and auto stocks as investors waited for the October inflation date to be released later in the day.

The market sentiment was also hit after credit rating agency Moody’s lowered its outlook on the US credit rating to "negative" from "stable" citing large fiscal deficits and a decline in debt affordability.

At 11.59 am, the 30-pack Sensex was down 336.96 points or 0.52 percent at 64,922.49, and the broad-based Nifty was down 90.50 points or 0.46 percent at 19,435.00. About 1,400 shares advanced, 1,815 declined and 107 remained unchanged.

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As Samvat 2080 kicked off on November 12, Motilal Oswal of Motilal Oswal Group said, “Entering into Samvat 2080, we believe India would continue to shine and expect markets to maintain its outperformance. We believe that over the next couple of quarters, sector rotation would be an important driver along with the overall market uptrend. We expect sectors like BFSI, discretionary consumption, construction & real estate and high-growth niche sectors to drive the overall market uptrend.”

Despite economic headwinds and global geopolitical concerns, Samvat 2079 ended with Nifty gaining around 10 percent, he added.

Stocks and sectors

Fortis Healthcare shares gained 4 percent even after its Q2 profit declined 15.7 percent YoY to Rs 183.9 crore. Hindustan Copper shares surged 6 percent as its Q2FY24 net profit doubled, with a 67 percent rise in income and a 49 percent increase in sales volume.

Among the laggards, Steel Authority of India was down a percent as investors locked in profits despite the company turning profitable with a net profit of Rs 1,305 crore in the July-September quarter. Shares of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) fell after the company's net profit fell on-year in the fiscal second quarter.

The broader markets also traded in the red. The fear gauge India VIX sank 0.41 percent. Certain smallcap indices outperformed the market, trading mildly in the green.

Sectorally, all indices barring Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Metal were in the red. Nifty Auto, Nifty IT and Nifty Media recorded losses, falling up to 0.82 percent. On the 30-share Sensex, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank were the biggest drag.

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