Sensex, Nifty end sharply lower
Indian shares fell from record highs to end lower on Friday due to broad-based profit booking ahead of the national budget and a global cyber outage impacting multiple sectors.
NSE Nifty 50 dropped 1.09% to 24,530.9, and BSE Sensex fell 0.91% to 80,604.65, after both indexes briefly hit record highs earlier in the session.
“Global cues were negative for the last two days. Indian markets fell due to a combination of weak global cues and profit-taking ahead of the Union Budget 2024 to be presented on Tuesday, July 23rd. All sectors were in the red with the market breadth negative. This is normal consolidation around all-time high levels and the markets will wait for the Union Budget details before taking fresh positions. We expect this to continue till Tuesday” said Ajay Bagga, banking and market expert.
“As a Fed rate cut in September’s FOMC meeting looks imminent, there is sector rotation happening, with high growth, momentum stocks being sold and underperforming sectors being bought. However, given that the rate cuts will be shallow and slow, emerging markets (EMs) will not benefit from flows being routed from the US to EMs in a hurry. That might take a year more at the least” he added.
Reliance Industries, the second heaviest stock in the Nifty 50, dropped 2% ahead of its quarterly results. Infosys, India’s second-largest IT services firm, rose 2% after raising its fiscal year 2025 revenue growth outlook. Persistent Systems fell 6.4% after reporting operating profit margins below analysts’ estimates.