Indian market started the day flat but lost traction soon and then continued to fall through the day as investors around the globe remained jittery on the back of US bank turmoil. At close, Nifty was down 111 points, or 0.65%, at 17,043.30 and Sensex ended the day at 57,900.19 - a loss of 337.66 points, or 0.58%.
The benchmark indices - Sensex and Nifty - fell 4 percent each in last 4 days. The market-capitalisation of BSE-listed firms has dropped to ₹256.39 lakh crore from ₹266.24 lakh crore on March 8, making investors poorer by ₹9.85 lakh crore.
“Markets inched further lower and lost over half a percent, in continuation to the prevailing trend. After the initial decline, Nifty tried to recoup losses in the middle but selling pressure in index majors from IT, banking and energy pack pushed the index to a newer low. It slipped below the psychological mark of 17,000 levels for a brief and finally settled at 17,043.30 levels," said Ajit Mishra, VP - Technical Research, Religare Broking.
The broader indices traded in tandem and lost in the range of 0.5%-08%.
Top gainers on Nifty were Titan, BPCL, L&T, Bharti Airtel and Sun Pharma, on the other hand, Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports, M&M, TCS and HDFC Life were top losers.
Markets are dancing to the global tunes and we’ll see the reaction to the US inflation in early trade on Wednesday. Indications are in the favor of some breather after the recent slide but the upside seems capped too. Meanwhile, participants should stay light and focus more on risk management," said Ajit Mishra.
Asian markets sank Tuesday, with banks bearing the brunt of the selling on fears of contagion in the sector after the collapse of two regional US lenders.
Tuesday, as fears about contagion from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) lingerie
Except media and pharma, all other Nifty sectoral indices ended in the red.
“The only positive factor today was the WPI data for Feb’23, which came in at 25-month low at 3.85%. Markets are likely to remain under pressure in the near term, as the US banking crisis deepens with more and more US banks coming under the cloud. Now all eyes will be on the US inflation data that will be released late on Tuesday and would be key factor for the Fed’s decision on interest rate in its upcoming meeting amidst the ongoing banking turmoil," said Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services
