The Indian stock market continued to record sharp losses on Tuesday, with Sensex falling for the third straight session and Nifty bleeding for the sixth consecutive session amid fading hopes for a peace deal in the Middle East.
Sensex fell around 493 points to close at around 77,235 while Nifty 50 lost around 133 points to end the session at 24,155. Broader markets also closed in the red, with Nifty Smallcap 100 and Nifty Midcap 100 falling up to 0.4%.
Here's how analysts read the market pulse
Crude oil remained the primary drag on market sentiment, while rising US bond yields and weak global cues prolonged the risk-off trend in Indian equities, said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Investments. He noted that investor anxiety increased as hopes for a Middle East resolution faded following the expiration of the temporary US-Iran ceasefire, heightening concerns about renewed inflation.
“Elevated US yields further reduced the attractiveness of emerging markets, and IT stocks led losses amid fears that persistently high interest rates could dampen global technology spending. Although domestic fundamentals continue to be supportive, sustained high crude prices and rising input costs could pressure recent earnings upgrades, prompting investors to remain cautious in the near term,” the analyst further said.
US stocks
Wall Street's main indexes fell to about two-week lows on Tuesday, pressured by losses in heavyweight technology stocks, while fading hopes for a U.S.-Iran peace deal sustained gains in oil prices and kept government bond yields at multi-year peaks.
Iran said it would shift to a "fully offensive" military posture because efforts to negotiate a permanent end to the war with the U.S. have stalled, while Washington ruled out extending a temporary ceasefire agreement that expired on August 17.
The developments pushed Brent crude futures up 0.5% at around three-week highs. The S&P 500 Energy sector gained 1.4%.
European markets
European shares edged lower on Tuesday, hit by a rise in crude oil prices as hopes of a durable U.S.-Iran peace deal faded, with surging euro zone bond yields adding to the pressure amid worries about persistent inflation.
The pan-European STOXX 600 was down 0.64% at 652.2 points on track for a fifth consecutive session of losses.
Tech view
"The weakness persists as the Nifty weekly options contracts expire. The index slipped below the 50EMA for the first time in many days, heightening bearishness in the market. The RSI remains in a bearish crossover and continues to decline. Overall sentiment might favour the bears as the index continues to lose bullish momentum. On the lower end, the fall might extend towards 24050–24000, where initial support is likely to emerge. On the other hand, resistance is visible at 24240,” said Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities.
Most active stocks in terms of turnover
BSE (Rs 1,905 crore), RIL (Rs 1,325 crore), Bharti Airtel (Rs 1,305 crore), HDFC Bank (Rs 1,298 crore), Netweb Technologies (Rs 1,271 crore), Tube Investments (Rs 1,228 crore) and ICICI Bank (Rs 1,177 crore) were among the most active stocks on NSE in value terms. Higher activity in a counter in value terms can help identify the counters with the highest trading turnovers in the day.
Most active stocks in volume terms
Vodafone Idea (Traded shares: 82.08 crore), Suzlon Energy (Traded shares: 6.23 crore), Groww (Traded shares: 5.71 crore), Welspun India (Traded shares: 5.37 crore), Physicswallah (Traded shares: 5.21 crore), IFCI (Traded shares: 5 crore), and Yes Bank (Traded shares: 4.98 crore) were among the most actively traded stocks in volume terms on NSE.
Stocks showing buying interest
Jyoti CNC Automation, Tube Investments, Prime Focus, GSK Pharma, Action Construction, Zen Tech and Aegis Logistics were among the stocks that witnessed strong buying interest from market participants.
52-week high
Among the ones which hit their 52-week highs on NSE included GSK Pharma, Action Construction, HEG, Welspun India, Craftsman Automation, Bosch and Lenskart Solutions.
Stocks seeing selling pressure
Stocks which witnessed significant selling pressure were SBI Card, Inox Wind, PTC Industries, Oberoi Realty, Torrent Power, Macrotech Developers and Sonata Software.
52-week low
Among the ones which hit their 52-week lows on NSE included ITC, KEC International, Dabur India, and IRB Infra Dev.
Sentiment meter favours bears
Out of the 3,582 stocks that traded on the NSE on August 18, Tuesday, 1,558 stocks witnessed advances, 1,924 saw declines while 100 stocks remained unchanged.
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)
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