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    Bear Attack! HDFC Bank, RIL drag Sensex 500 points lower; Nifty below 21,950

    Synopsis

    Indian equity indices traded lower due to declines in HDFC Bank and Reliance Industries. Asian Paints, Bharti Airtel, Power Grid, Bajaj Finserv tradec with cuts. Axis Bank, HCL Tech, L&T, TCS, Wipro, Maruti gained.

    HDFC Bank, RIL drag Sensex 150 points lower; Nifty below 22,100ANI
    Indian equity indices traded lower on Thursday, dragged by index heavyweights HDFC Bank and Reliance Industries, amid mixed cues from global peers.

    The BSE Sensex was trading 404 points lower at 72,207. Nifty50 was trading at 21,919, down 135 points at around 9.29 am.

    From the Sensex stocks, Asian Paints, Bharti Airtel, Power Grid, and Bajaj Finserv traded with cuts, while Axis Bank, HCL Tech, L&T, TCS, Wipro, and Maruti opened with gains.

    Among individual stocks, Paytm fell 3.6% in early trade after 36.9 lakh shares changed hands via block deal.

    Home First Finance shares rose 4% after insurance regulator Irdai granted a corp agent (composite) license for soliciting life, general and health insurance to the company.

    Nifty IT surged 0.8% after the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting indicated most policymakers were concerned about the risk of cutting rates too soon.

    The odds of a rate cut in June were little changed after the minutes. Indian IT firms earn a significant share of their revenue from the United States.

    In the broader market, Nifty Midcap100 fell 0.7% and Nifty Smallcap100 declined 0.9%.

    Experts View
    "Nifty can find support at 22,000 followed by 21,950 and 21,900. On the higher side, 22,150 can be an immediate resistance, followed by 22,200 and 22,250," said Deven Mehata, Research Analyst at Choice Broking.

    V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said, "An important trend now is the huge delivery based buying in the private banks, which are even now attractively valued in this market with elevated valuations. Switching from over-valued mid and small caps to large private banks would be a smart move."

    Global Markets
    Wall Street equities were mixed overnight. Asian markets opened marginally higher, with the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index adding 0.1%. Japan's Nikkei 225 hit a record high.

    Japanese technology stocks jumped after U.S. chipmaker Nvidia reported strong earnings and gave a robust growth and demand outlook.

    FII/DII Tracker
    Domestic institutional investors (DII) snapped a seven-session buying streak on Wednesday, offloading shares worth Rs 412 crore, on a net basis.

    Foreign investors, on the other hand, turned net buyers after two sessions, adding Rs 285 crore of shares.

    Oil Prices Rise
    Oil prices rose slightly on Thursday, holding to gains from the previous session that came amid signs of tighter supply.

    U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures (WTI) rose 11 cents to $78.02 a barrel. Brent crude for April delivery ticked up 10 cents to $83.13 a barrel.

    Currency Watch
    The Indian rupee rose 2 paise to $82.94 against the US dollar in early trade. The dollar index, which tracks the movement of the greenback against a basket of six major world currencies, declined 0.05% to 103.95 level.

    (With inputs from agencies)

    (Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)


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    Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the Economic Times ePaper Online.and Sensex Today.

    Top Trending Stocks: SBI Share Price, Axis Bank Share Price, HDFC Bank Share Price, Infosys Share Price, Wipro Share Price, NTPC Share Price

    ...more

    (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel)

    (What's moving Sensex and Nifty Track latest market news, stock tips, Budget 2024 and expert advice, on ETMarkets. Also, ETMarkets.com is now on Telegram. For fastest news alerts on financial markets, investment strategies and stocks alerts, subscribe to our Telegram feeds .)

    Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the Economic Times ePaper Online.and Sensex Today.

    Top Trending Stocks: SBI Share Price, Axis Bank Share Price, HDFC Bank Share Price, Infosys Share Price, Wipro Share Price, NTPC Share Price

    ...more
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