Indian equity benchmarks snapped their four-day winning streak to end the session with declines, led by a decline in index heavyweight Reliance Industries ahead of its results amid weak global cues.
A global computer systems outage, which hit everything from travel to broking services, also worried investors.
The benchmark Sensex began the session hitting a new high but gave up the gains. It ended the session at 80,605, with a decline of 739 points, or 0.9 per cent. The Nifty 50 hit an intraday high of 24,855 but ended the session at 24,531, with a drop of 270 points or 1.09 per cent. Both indices ended the week with moderate gains of 0.1 per cent each. For both indices, this was their seventh consecutive week of gains, with the Nifty equalling its longest gaining streak since December.
For Sensex, this is the longest weekly gain streak since January 2021. The decline on Friday wiped out investor wealth worth Rs 7.9 trillion.
Reliance Industries, which fell 1.9 per cent, was the biggest drag on Sensex, followed by Tata Steel, which fell 5.2 per cent. The gains in Infosys, the best-performing Sensex stock and the biggest gains contributor, helped mitigate some losses. Infosys, whose quarterly results were announced post-market hours on Thursday, raised its revenue guidance for FY25 to 3-4 per cent, an upward revision from the 1-3 per cent the company had guided in the last quarter of FY24.
Analysts attributed the latest declines to profit booking ahead of the budget.
“The domestic market ended with a downturn due to the global sell-off, triggered by operating system issues that caused devices to crash worldwide. The global IT outage has led to disruptions in various Indian industries. The overvalued market is also experiencing profit booking ahead of the budget next week. The recent performance has been bullish in anticipation of pro-industry and populist measures,” said Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services.
Aviation and broking stocks fell as they faced some disruption in their functioning due to the global outage.
The Indian equity market is largely on an upward trajectory after a brief but sharp decline on the day of the Lok Sabha election results on June 4. From election result-day lows, the Nifty has jumped over 15 per cent, buoyed by hopes of policy continuity and strong macroeconomic indicators. The market’s trajectory will depend on whether the FPI flows continue and the union budget next week.
“Investors are also cautious ahead of the Union Budget next week on July 23, which will provide the next direction for the market. Earnings season will also pick up the pace, which will result in stock-specific actions,” said Siddhartha Khemka, head of retail research at Motilal Oswal Financial Services.
The market breadth was weak, with 3,071 stocks declining and 858 advancing. All the Sensex stocks, barring four, declined.
First Published: Jul 19 2024 | 6:51 PM IST
