Stock market today: Domestic market benchmarks the Nifty 50 and the Sensex suffered strong losses on an across-the-board selloff on Tuesday, January 23, amid weak global cues. The sell-off was not only broad-based but also more pronounced in the midcap and smallcap space, reflecting deeper losses in the respective indices.
Recent market sentiment has been fragile, largely influenced by underwhelming December quarter earnings. With waning optimism regarding potential rate cuts in the US, investors are booking profits amidst growing geopolitical tensions and heightened economic uncertainty in major global economies, including the US, China and Europe.
“Selling by FIIs due to reasons like high valuation and mixed results for the earnings season so far, along with recent escalations in tensions in West Asia and the Red Sea, prompted the investors to book profit from the recent rally. Going forward, markets are likely to witness stock-specific actions during the ongoing earnings season,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.
After opening about 145 points higher at 21,716.70, the Nifty rose 178 points in intraday trade to hit the day’s high of 21,750.25. However, the index failed to hold altitude and plunged as much as 379 points in intraday trade to hit the day’s low of 21,192.60. The index finally closed with a deep cut of 333 points, or 1.54 per cent, at 21,238.80.
The Sensex opened 445 points higher at 71,868.20 and jumped as much as 616 points to the intraday high of 72,039.20. The index later erased all gains and sank 1,189 points to hit the intraday low of 70,234.55. The index closed 1,053 points, or 1.47 per cent, down at 70,370.55.
Shares of heavyweights HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, SBI and Larsen & Toubro ended as the top drags on the benchmark indices.
HDFC Bank share price has been weak after its Q3 result on January 16. The stock rose about half a per cent in the previous session but resumed its downward march today, falling 3.45 per cent. For the current month, the stock is down over 16 per cent.
Zee Entertainment lost a whopping 32.73 per cent today after the Sony merger deal termination.
The losses in midcaps and smallcaps were even deeper as the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices ended with losses of nearly 3 per cent each.
The overall market capitalisation of the BSE-listed firms plunged to nearly ₹366 lakh crore from nearly ₹374.4 lakh crore in the previous session, making investors lose about ₹8.4 lakh crore in a single session.
After today’s close, the Sensex is down 3 per cent while the Nifty 50 has declined over 2 per cent in January so far. However, the midcap and smallcap indices are still in the green for the current month. BSE Midcap index is up over 1 per cent while the Smallcap index is up about 2 per cent in January so far.
Top Nifty 50 gainers today
Only 10 stocks managed to end in the green in the Nifty 50 index on Tuesday among which shares of Cipla (up 6.97 per cent), Sun Pharma (up 4.04 per cent) and Bharti Airtel (up 2.97 per cent) ended as the top gainers.
Top Nifty 50 laggards today
Shares of IndusInd Bank (down 6.18 per cent), Coal India (down 5.58 per cent) and SBI Life Insurance Company (down 4.66 per…
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