Indian stock indices marginally up after Wednesday's bloodbath
Mar 14, 2024
New Delhi [India], March 14 : Indian benchmark stock market indices traded marginally higher in the Thursday morning session after a sharp slump in the previous session led by a broad sell-off.
At 11.13 am, Sensex was at 72,991.80 points, up 229.91 points or 0.32 per cent, while Nifty was at 22,087.90 points, up 90.20 points or 0.41 per cent. Among the widely-tracked Nifty 50 stocks, 33 advanced and the rest 17 declined, NSE data showed.
Nifty and Sensex ended Wednesday's trading session deep in red. The Nifty 50 slumped 338 points. While the Sensex plunged over 1,000 points intra-day.
The wholesale price inflation data that is expected today is to be closely monitored later in the day.
The broader market indices continue to hover almost near the all-time highs they touched late last week.
The indices had been firm tracking firmness in most sectoral indices coupled with overall stable macroeconomic parameters. Sensex last week crossed the 74,000 mark for the first time.
Foreign portfolio investors who had aggressively sold Indian stocks and turned net sellers in the Indian equity market in January 2024 became net buyers in February and March. This has also likely buoyed the stocks of late.
So far in March, they bought stocks in India worth Rs 26,242 crore, the latest data from the National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) showed.
"Indian equity markets closed with significant losses due to broad-based selling across the sectors. Heavy sell-off was witnessed across the segments, especially in the mid-cap & small-cap segments, as mutual fund houses are going to reveal the stress test result on mid-cap & small-cap schemes on Mar 15, 2024, after the AMFI had asked asset management companies to put in place a policy to protect investors in small-cap and mid-cap segments in light of the froth building up in the broader markets.," said Icra Analytics.
According to VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, "The lesson from market history is that frothy valuations are unsustainable. Therefore, the blood bath in the broader market which happened yesterday is hardly surprising to sane minds in the industry."
"There is room for the broader market to correct more since the valuations continue to be elevated. Investors should now focus on largecaps and quality midcaps. The turbulence in the market will give cherry picking opportunities," Vijayakumar added.
