Stock market today: Lately, the Indian stock market has been dominated by a sell-on-rise and buy-on-dips strategy. On Tuesday, July 2, this pattern continued as the benchmarks—the Nifty 50 and the Sensex—reached fresh all-time highs in intraday trading but failed to sustain those gains, ending with mild losses amid weak global cues.
Nifty 50 hit its fresh all-time high of 24,236.35 during the session but closed 18 points, or 0.07 per cent, lower at 24,123.85.
The 30-share pack Sensex also hit its fresh record high of 79,855.87 but slipped 35 points, or 0.04 per cent, to close at 79,441.45.
Profit booking in select heavyweights, such as ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and SBI, dragged the index down. Meanwhile, shares of HDFC Bank, Larsen & Toubro, Infosys, and TCS supported the key indices most, keeping their losses limited.
Lack of fresh triggers back home and weak global cues kept investors' risk appetite low. Major European markets such as the UK's FTSE, France's CAC 40 and Germany's DAX were down when the Sensex closed.
“Markets had touched fresh highs in early trades on fresh optimism but failed to capitalise on it and slipped into the red to languish in negative territory thereafter. Weak European and Asian cues coupled with a negative sentiment in Dow Futures fuelled profit-taking in banking, telecom and auto shares,” said Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities.
The BSE Midcap index declined 0.57 per cent; however, the Smallcap index ended with a nominal gain of 0.07 per cent.
Over 350 stocks, including Tech Mahindra, Ambuja Cements, Grasim Industries, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company, JSW Steel, Info Edge, Persistent Systems, Trent, UltraTech Cement and Zomato, hit their fresh 52-week highs in intraday trade on BSE.
Shares of Larsen and Toubro (up 2.73 per cent), Wipro (up 2.09 per cent) and Infosys (up 1.84 per cent) closed as the top gainers in the index.
Shares of Shriram Finance (down 2.95 per cent), Kotak Mahindra Bank (down 2.49 per cent) and Bharti Airtel (down 2.40 per cent) closed as the top losers in the index.
Most indices ended with losses. Nifty Bank fell 0.74 per cent, while the PSU Bank index lost 1.82 per cent and the Private Bank index suffered a loss of 0.83 per cent. FMCG (down 0.80 per cent) and Auto (down 0.79 per cent) also lost significantly.
On the other hand, Nifty Media (up 1.12 per cent) and IT (up 1.05 per cent) closed with healthy gains.
Also Read: Back in Focus! Nomura turns bullish on Indian IT sector; upgrades Infosys, TCS, HCL Tech, and Wipro
"The domestic market took a breather, resonating with the mixed global trend, with the ECB showing caution regarding further rate cuts. In sectoral trends, IT stocks gained due to expected increases in discretionary spending, while auto stocks declined following lower-than-expected monthly volumes," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services., pointed out.
"The investors are closely monitoring the progress of the monsoon, the forthcoming Union budget, alongside the US election, which can have potential global economic implications. Recent spikes in US Treasury yields and a gradual rise in crude oil prices are affecting market trends," Nair said.
"The sentiment is likely to favour selling on rallies until it moves above 24,250. On the lower end, 24,000 is likely to act as immediate support for the Nifty. A fall below 24,000 might trigger a correction towards 23,850/23,700," said Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst, LKP Securities.
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