Sensex, Nifty Snap Three-Day Record Breaking Streak On Profit Booking

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes snapped their three-day record-breaking streak as investors booked profits in recent outperforming state-run banking, metal, information technology, FMCG and pharma shares ahead of the weekend as volatility spiked. Earlier in the day, Sensex rose as much as 596 points to hit an intraday high of 59,737.32 and Nifty 50 index touched an all-time high of 17,792.95. The Sensex fell as much as 866 points from record high and Nifty touched an intraday low of 17,537.65. India VIX, the fear index rose over 7 per cent.

The Sensex declined 125 points or 0.2 per cent to close at 59,015.89 and Nifty 50 index fell 44 points or 0.25 per cent to end at 17,629.

“Bull momentum continued today and both benchmark indices touched fresh highs but investors showed signs of nervousness as the market witnessed a late bout of profit-taking towards the closing stages. Technically, benchmark Nifty maintained uptrend continuation formation which is broadly positive but due to temporary overbought situation, bulls may prefer to take a cautious stance near the 17,800 resistance level,” said Shrikant Chouhan, head of equity research (Retail), Kotak Securities.

Selling pressure was broad-based as nine of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended lower led by the Nifty PSU Bank index’s nearly 3 per cent decline. Metal, Realty, Healthcare, Pharma, Oil & Gas, Information Technology and FMCG indices also fell between 0.5-2.4 per cent.

On the other hand, Nifty Bank, Financial Services, Media and Private Bank indices ended higher.

Mid- and small-cap shares witnessed intense selling as Nifty Midcap 100 index dropped 1.3 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index fell 0.73 per cent.

Among the individual shares, Bengaluru-based Biocon rose as much as 5.75 per cent to hit an intraday high of Rs 398.60 on the BSE after the company said that its material subsidiary – Biocon Biologics (BBL) – has entered into a strategic alliance with Serum Institute Life Sciences (SILS), a wholly owned arm of Serum Institute of India.

Shares of Indian airlines InterGlobe Aviation and SpiceJet surged on Friday after regulatory data showed that passenger growth jumped 136.6 per cent last month as the government started to ease COVID-related travel restrictions.

Tata Steel was top Nifty loser, the stock fell 3.76 per cent to close at Rs 1,383. Coal India, State Bank of India, TCS, Hindalco, UPL, Reliance Industries, Sun Pharma, HDFC Life, Tata Motors, Hindustan Unilever, Dr Reddy’s Labs, Asian Paints and Bharat Petroleum also fell between 1-3.5 per cent.

On the flipside, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, Eicher Motors, Maruti Suzuki, Axis Bank, SBI Life, Nestle India, Bajaj Finserv and Bajaj Auto were among the gainers.

The overall market breadth was extremely negative as 2,064 shares ended lower while 1,232 ended higher on the BSE.