Sensex and Nifty Edge Lower as Banking Stocks See Significant Losses

Sensex and Nifty Dip as Banking Stocks Witness Substantial Declines

Written by: Supriya Kadu

Edited by: Pinky Deshmukh

Last Updated: July 10, 2024

Summary: The National Stock Exchange's 13 sector gauges were trading down, with the Nifty Bank index seeing a 0.5% decline.

Losses at major banks like HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and the State Bank of India caused Wednesday's slight decline in the benchmarks for Indian equities. Amid muted indications from Asian markets, the Sensex dropped as much as 207 points, and the Nifty 50 index hit an intraday low of 24,383.

The Nifty 50 index dropped 19 points to 24,414 and the Sensex was down 117 points at 80,234 as of 9:27 a.m.

After US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell informed the US Congress that he did not want "to be sending any signals about the timing of any future actions" on interest rates, most Asian markets were trading on a muted note. South Korea's KOSPI was down 0.09 percent, China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.33 percent, and Japan's Nikkei fell 0.2%.

According to the CME FedWatch Tool, the likelihood of a 25 basis point reduction in the Federal Reserve's benchmark rate in September decreased slightly to 73% from 77% a day earlier. However, the estimate of 50 basis point cuts in 2024 did not change.

Due to increases in Nvidia, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed at all-time highs on Tuesday.

In India, the Nifty Bank index fell 0.5%, leading nine out of the thirteen sector indices produced by the National Stock Exchange to trade lower. Shares of auto, finance, metal, pharmaceutical, and healthcare companies were also under pressure to sell.

On the contrary, purchases were made in consumer durables, IT, and FMCG stocks. While the Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indexes were trading little changed, mid- and small-cap equities were trading mutedly.

The biggest loss on the Nifty was Mahindra & Mahindra, whose stock fell 4.2% to Rs 2,803. Additionally declining by 0.4 to 0.8 percent were Axis Bank, State Bank of India, JSW Steel, Dr. Reddy's Labs, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HCL Technologies, and Cipla.

On the other hand, Maruti Suzuki experienced a 3% increase, reaching a record high of Rs 13,272.60 on the BSE. Among the winners were Apollo Hospitals, Grasim, Bajaj Auto, Titan, Hero MotoCorp, Divi's Labs, Eicher Motors, and Bajaj Auto.

There was a little increase in the total market breadth on the BSE, with 1,699 shares rising and 1,359 decreasing.