After five consecutive days of gains, investors chased to book profits across Indian equities, sending benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty lower.
This week, the Nifty surpassed the 25,000 mark for the first time ever and Sensex broke the psychological 82,000 mark.
Sensex was down 885 points or 1.08% at 80,981 and the Nifty was down 293 points or 1.17% at 24,717. It opened at 81,158.99 against its previous close of 81,867.55 while the Nifty 50 opened at 24,789 against its previous close of 25,010.90.
Among the sectors, Nifty Realty plunged 3.5%, while Auto and Metal cracked nearly 3% each. The IT index suffered a loss of over 2%.
Auto stocks faced selling pressure as weak monthly sales numbers for July soured investor sentiment. Major automakers like Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Eicher Motors, Bajaj Auto, and Mahindra & Mahindra slipped 1-5%, dragging the Nifty Auto index nearly 3% lower.
Maruti Suzuki India ended the session with a 5% drop after reporting a 9.64% decline in domestic passenger vehicle sales, totaling 137,463 units compared to 152,126 units in the same month last year.
While exports grew by 8% year-on-year and sales to OEMs (Toyota) more than doubled, total sales fell by 3.6% year-on-year.
Nifty Bank index declined 0.41%, while the Private Bank index slipped 0.39%. On the other hand, the PSU Bank index suffered a strong loss of 1.72%.
Metal stocks faced significant losses today, with the Nifty Metal index dropping nearly 3% to 9,301 points. This marks the second consecutive decline for the index, resulting in a 1.16% loss for the week.
On Nifty50, as many as 42 stocks ended in the red. Shares of automakers Eicher Motors, Tata Motors and Maruti ended as the top losers.
The volatility index India VIX jumped over 11% to 14.41, indicating rising nervousness among market participants.
Shares of Zomato zoomed over 12% as investors cheered the food aggregator firm’s stellar earnings for the quarter ended June 2024, with all segments registering healthy growth.
Suzlon Energy gained nearly 5%, rebounding from previous session’s losses due to profit-booking.
The June quarter result of India Inc. has been mixed so far, raising concerns that the market may not sustain the current valuation levels.
Global markets in the US and Asia plunged as concerns over economic growth losing steam grew weaker-than-expected US factory data.
Reuters in a report cited the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) saying that its manufacturing PMI dropped to 46.8 last month, the lowest reading since November, from 48.5 in June. A PMI reading below 50 indicates contraction in the manufacturing sector, which accounts for 10.3 per cent of the economy.