Sensex slips 126 points for fourth straight fall; Nifty ends at 22,600 as smallcaps sink nearly 3%
Benchmarks fell for a fourth session on Friday and lost over 2% for the week, with Brent near $114, a weaker rupee and heavy midcap selling.
Indian equities closed lower for a fourth consecutive session on Friday, 23 October, though a late recovery from the day’s lows trimmed the damage. The Sensex ended at 73,123.83, down 125.56 points or 0.17%, while the Nifty 50 closed exactly at 22,600, down 87.65 points or 0.39%.
The headline indices masked a much sharper sell-off in the broader market, where smallcap and midcap gauges lost between 2% and 3%. Crude oil, with Brent nearing $114 a barrel, a softer rupee and continued foreign selling kept investors on the back foot.
A volatile session
The Sensex opened at 73,665.64 and touched 73,766.51 before sliding to an intraday low of 72,452.37, according to figures reported by WorldNews24x7. It then clawed back roughly 670 points from that low. The Nifty moved between 22,787.25 and 22,372, slipping below 22,400 at one stage before recovering about 228 points. The India VIX, a gauge of expected volatility, rose 6.32% to 16.76.
Among Sensex stocks, Larsen & Toubro, Reliance Industries, TCS and UltraTech Cement were among the gainers, while Tata Steel (down 3.21%), Adani Ports (down 3.03%), Trent, Tech Mahindra and BEL were the biggest drags. On the Nifty, Shriram Finance, Tata Steel and Adani Enterprises were among the laggards, UNI reported.
Broader market takes the bigger hit
- Nifty Smallcap 100: down 2.94%
- Nifty Next 50: down 2.26%
- Nifty Midcap 100: down 2.21%
- Nifty Metal: down 2.71%; Consumer Durables down 2.63%; Realty down 2.38%; PSU Bank down 2.26%
- Nifty IT: the most resilient sector, down only 0.27%
UNI said all sectoral indices ended in the red and more than 700 stocks hit 52-week lows. It linked the pressure to inflation worries arising from the surge in crude prices, higher domestic bond yields that have put equity valuations under scrutiny, and the unwinding of leveraged positions in mid- and smallcaps. Resilient September-quarter earnings provided some support.
The week in numbers
For the holiday-shortened week, the Sensex lost about 2% and the Nifty about 2.35%, ending a two-week winning run, according to UNI. The rupee weakened 12 paise to 94.94 against the US dollar, its second straight decline.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs 3,458.70 crore on 22 October, while domestic institutions bought shares worth Rs 2,891.32 crore, according to provisional data cited by WorldNews24x7.
What to watch next week
Technical analysts cited in a Social News XYZ report see demand around 22,400 to 22,500 on the Nifty but called Friday’s close fragile. If 22,500 holds, a rebound towards 22,800 to 22,900 is possible; a break below it could open the way to 22,300 and 22,200. A sustained close above 22,900 would signal that the decline is stabilising.
Beyond the charts, the direction of crude oil prices, foreign fund flows, inflation trends and how major central banks balance growth and price pressures are likely to drive sentiment. Analysts expect stock-specific moves to dominate as the earnings season continues, with earnings visibility and comfortable valuations as key differentiators.
Sources
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