Closing Bell: Sensex slips 122 pts, Nifty below 24,200 — Trent, Adani Ports top gainers

Indian equity markets witnessed sharp volatility on Thursday, with benchmark indices reversing early gains to end lower on the day of the weekly expiry of Sensex derivatives contracts.

The Sensex dropped around 123 points to close at 77,988.68, while the Nifty 50 declined 34.55 points to settle at 24,197. The markets had opened on a strong note, with the Sensex rising nearly 570 points and the Nifty approaching the 24,400 level in early trade.

Sharp intraday correction

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During the session, however, both indices saw a steep intraday correction. The Sensex fell more than 740 points from the day’s high, while the Nifty slipped over 204 points, as selling pressure emerged in heavyweight stocks.

Early rally driven by global cues

The initial rally was supported by easing geopolitical concerns amid hopes of an early resolution to tensions between Iran and the United States, along with cooling crude oil prices that slipped below the USD 95 per barrel mark during morning trade. These factors had boosted investor sentiment at the opening.

Profit booking drags markets

However, the optimism faded as profit booking set in, dragging the benchmarks into negative territory by the close. The decline came after markets had staged a sharp rebound in April following sustained selling pressure in March.

Broader markets outperform

Broader markets, however, showed resilience. Midcap and smallcap indices on the NSE outperformed the benchmarks, rising between 0.6 per cent and 0.8 per cent. Market breadth remained positive, with around 2,147 stocks advancing, 1,089 declining, and 89 remaining unchanged.

Volatility eases, stock-specific action

Volatility indicators eased during the session. India VIX declined about 3 per cent to close at 18.09, indicating some cooling in market volatility despite the sharp intraday swings.

Among Sensex constituents, major losers included HDFC Bank, Titan, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bharti Airtel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bajaj Finance, Hindustan Unilever and HCL Technologies. These stocks declined in the range of 1 per cent to 2 per cent, weighing on the indices.

On the other hand, select stocks bucked the trend. Shares of Trent and Eternal, the parent company of Zomato, gained nearly 3 per cent each to emerge as top gainers on the index.

Sector-wise, the Nifty Private Bank index declined 0.56 per cent, making it the top laggard among sectoral indices. In contrast, the Nifty Metal index rose more than 1 per cent and retained most of its gains throughout the session.

Rupee, FIIs and global cues

In the currency market, the Indian rupee strengthened by 11 paise to close at 93.22 against the US dollar, compared to the previous close of 93.3725. The currency showed signs of recovery after earlier weakness triggered by geopolitical tensions and elevated crude oil prices.

Foreign institutional investors showed limited activity in the market. They were net buyers of equities worth over Rs 666 crore in the previous session. However, this follows a prolonged period of selling, during which foreign investors offloaded equities worth more than Rs 1.6 lakh crore between March 2 and April 9. They have been net buyers in only two out of the last 30 sessions.

Global cues remained supportive. Asian markets traded higher, with Japan’s Nikkei rising more than 2 per cent to hit a fresh all-time high. South Korea’s Kospi gained over 2 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng advanced more than 1.9 per cent. European markets were also trading with marginal gains.

On Wall Street, the Nasdaq rose around 1.6 per cent in the previous session, while the S&P 500 gained 0.8 per cent. Dow Jones futures were marginally higher during the day.

Crude oil prices remained volatile amid developments in the Middle East. Brent crude slipped below USD 95 per barrel in early trade but later edged higher to above USD 96 per barrel. The movement in oil prices continued to be driven by expectations around potential easing of tensions and the outlook for supply through key global routes.