Mumbai: Indian domestic benchmark indices closed in the red on Tuesday, the second day of the trading week. Selling was recorded in the auto, pharma and PSU bank sectors at the end of trading. The Sensex closed at 75,967.39 with a marginal decline of 29.47 points or 0.04 percent. It was about 436.38 points higher than its intra-day low level of 75,531.01. With this, the Sensex touched an intra-day high level of 76,091.69.
The Nifty closed at 22,945.30 after a marginal decline of 14.20 points or 0.06 percent. The index traded between 22,992.50 and 22,801.50 during the session. The Nifty Bank closed at 49,087.30 after a decline of 171.60 points or 0.35 percent.
At the close of trading, the Nifty Midcap 100 index fell 98.40 points or 0.20 per cent to close at 49,751.45, while the Nifty Smallcap 100 index fell 244.65 points or 1.59 per cent to close at 15,168.45. “Technically, on the daily scale, Nifty has formed a hammer candlestick pattern near multiple support zones, which indicates strength,” market experts said.
According to Rishikesh Yedve of Asit C. Mehta Investment Intermediates Ltd, “As long as the index sustains the recent low of 22,725, a buy on dips strategy remains favorable.” He added that the 21-day simple moving average at 23,240 acts as an immediate hurdle and a decisive move above this level could confirm a near-term bottom reversal.
On the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), 1,032 stocks closed in the green and 2,918 in the red, while 114 stocks remained unchanged. Indusind Bank, M&M, UltraTech Cement, Hindustan Unilever, Sun Pharma, ITC, TCS, Asian Paints, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel, Titan were the top losers in the Sensex pack.
On the other hand, NTPC, Zomato, Tech Mahindra, PowerGrid, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HCL Tech, Infosys, Bajaj Finance, HDFC Bank, Nestle India and Maruti were the top gainers. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued their selling spree by selling equities worth Rs 3,937.83 crore on February 17. In contrast, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) remained net buyers, buying equities worth Rs 4,759.77 crore on the same day.
