Stock Market Updates: The Sensex drops 950 points from its high for the day, and the Nifty falls below 24,100.
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Summary: Mixed signals from Asian markets contributed to the cautious start to Thursday's trading session for Indian equity benchmark indexes.
Amid worries over US President-elect Donald Trump's plans and growing uncertainty about the US rate drop trajectory, IT stocks pulled down important Indian benchmark indexes on Thursday, which led to a decline in global peers.
But the BSE Sensex dropped more than 700 points and stayed close to 79,500. The NSE Nifty, however, was down about 200 points close to the 24,100 mark.
Hindustan Unilever, ITC, NTPC, and HDFC Bank were the Sensex 30 firms that had the most gains. However, Mahindra & Mahindra, SBI, and Infosys were all in the red.
Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, at Geojit Financial Services, said in a note: “The consolidation phase in the market is likely to continue in the near term. A clear positive for the market is the cessation of relentless selling by the FIIs. This will give confidence to the retail investors to again start buying aggressively. But there is no room for such high optimism.”
“Strong dollar is negative for emerging markets and, therefore, FIIs are unlikely to turn aggressive buyers. Also, large institutions would prefer to wait and watch for clarity on Trump’s policies and its likely impact on trade and the global economy."
The biggest movers on Thursday were Honasa Consumer, HUDCO, NBCC (India), and KEC International. The BSE SmallCap index outperformed the overall market with a 0.6% rise. However, the BSE MidCap index increased by 0.2%.
Sectorally, the PSU Bank, FMCG, and Metal indices saw significant increases after the Nifty Media and Realty indexes each had rallies of more than 1%. As a result, the Nifty IT index had a 1% decrease.
This morning, Asian markets showed a mixed trend. The Nikkei in Japan was up 0.5%. Taiwan and Hang Seng were slightly down, but Kospi and Straits Times saw slight rises as well.
The major indexes in the US saw overnight losses of up to 0.6%. The Dow Jones also lost its initial gains and ended the day down. Due to a half-day trading session on Friday and the impending Thanksgiving trade holiday tonight, trading activity was minimal.
As gold continues to be a strong hedge against sticky inflation and growing geopolitical concerns, Goldman Sachs projects that by December 2025, gold prices will have risen by almost 19% from their present levels to $3,150 per ounce.
