NEW DELHI: India’s equity market snapped its four days of winning streak as benchmark indices — Sensex and Nifty — shed over 1% on Thursday, in line with the trend in global peers after the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meet signalled a sooner-than-expected rate hikes.
A record growth in Covid-19 cases, especially of the Omicron variant, also hampered investors’ sentiment. The Sensex fell 621.31 points to close the Thursday session at 59,601.84, while Nifty declined 179.40 points to 17,745.90.
“ Bulls were a bit restrained on the back of rising Covid cases and its impact on the fourth quarter corporate performance since it happens to be an important quarter for India Inc,” said S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP securities.
Most sectoral indices ended lower, with IT and realty indices down over 1% each. Select bank and auto index witnessed some buying interest. Meanwhile, Paytm stock hit an all-time-low on Thursday even as global brokerage JP Morgan gave it a buy rating. The share hit Rs 1,250 and closed 2.70% lower at Rs 1,252.
Gaurav Garg, Head of Research, CapitalVia Global Research, said he sees an opportunity to accumulate Paytm in range of Rs 1,000-1,080... and on Thursday, “percentage of deliverable quantity to traded quantity was close to 48%. Hence, we might see a pull back towards Rs 1,400-1,450”.