Market wrap: Sensex falls for a second day; Nifty ends below 17,900

Top headlines

• Sensex falls for a second day, down 314 pts; Nifty ends below 17,900

• Tata Motors hits over 5-year high on healthy demand outlook

• Cabinet approves Rs 6,466-crore fund for telecom infra

• LIC IPO expected by Q4, says DIPAM Secretary

• Go Fashion IPO sails through on first day

After moving in a tight range for the better part of the day, the key benchmark indices ended near the day's low for a second straight session on Wednesday.

The BSE Sensex dropped to a low of 59,945, before ending 314 points down at 60,008. The NSE Nifty, on the other hand, erased 100 points to close at 17,899.

Reliance Industries again accounted for almost 50 per cent of the Sensex loss as the stock ended 2 per cent lower on the BSE. Axis Bank, Kotak Bank, and Bharti Airtel were other top drags on the index.

In broader markets, smallcaps bucked the trend. The BSE Smallcap index managed to end flat with a positive bias, while the Midcap index slipped 0.2 per cent.

Sectorally, the Nifty Auto index outperformed the benchmarks for a second straight day today. In the past 2 days, the index has gained nearly 4 per cent on the NSE with individual stocks like Maruti Suzuki rallying 11 per cent during the period.

Shares of the RC Bhargava-led company closed nearly 3 per cent higher today, near its 52-week high level of Rs 8,400 per share. This was after media reports that the company had received approval for setting up a third passenger vehicle manufacturing plant in Haryana’s Sonepat district.

The rally in the auto pack was also led by Tata Motors, which hit its highest level since February 2017 in intra-day trade. The stock has advanced 6 per cent in the past two days on hopes of a demand recovery.

On the downside, the Nifty Realty index was the worst hit today, down 1.6 per cent.

The Telecom index, too, ended 1 per cent lower, with individual stocks exhibiting mixed trends after the Union Cabinet approved a corpus of Rs 6,466 crore to provide mobile tower connectivity in Eastern India.

Now, coming to primary market updates. The three-day initial public offering of Go Fashion, which opened today, was subscribed over 2 times with retail investors' portion getting a subscription of over 10 times.

The IPO of Tarsons Products, meanwhile, concluded with nearly 80 times subscription. The portion reserved for NIIs and QIBs got massive subscriptions of over 180 times and nearly 120 times, respectively.

In a separate development, Tuhin Kanta Pandey, secretary in the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management, said today that the government was looking to list LIC by March 2022.

And before we close, a look at the trade set-up for tomorrow.

A fresh surge in Covid cases globally and inflationary pressures and expensive valuation back home are keeping investors on the sidelines. Cautious trading with thin volumes is expected tomorrow, given an extended weekend ahead.

Technically, the Nifty formed a bearish candle for a third straight day and closed below its support level of 17,900. Going ahead, the index may now move to its next support level of 17,700 and it could face a resistance around 17,950.