A week of profit booking as a hawkish Fed, crude and FII selling weigh heavy

After posting record highs in the previous week, the market remained under pressure in the week ended September 22 amid selling in most sectors as investors remained worried about US Federal Reserve’s hawkish stance, higher US treasury yields, rising crude prices and continuous FII selling.

In this week, the BSE Sensex fell 2.69 percent, or 1,829.48 points, to close at 66,009.15 and the Nifty50 shed 2.56 percent, or 518.1 points, to end at 19,674.25.

The BSE largecap index declined 2.5 percent, dragged by HDFC Bank, Zydus Lifesciences, FSN E-Commerce Ventures (Nykaa), UltraTech Cement, Ambuja Cements, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories and Wipro. Gianers included Berger Paints India, Punjab National Bank, Bajaj Holdings & Investment and Power Grid Corporation of India.

The BSE smallcap index slipped 2 percent, dragged by GTL Infrastructure, Balmer Lawrie Investment, Jupiter Wagons, Cressanda Solution, PTC India, Jaiprakash Associates, Cochin Shipyard, RACL Geartech and Music Broadcast. On the other hand, IFCI, KIOCL, EKI Energy Services, AGI Greenpac, PNB Gilts and Prime Focus added 20-37 percent.

The BSE midcap index was down 1.7 percent. Star Health & Allied Insurance Company, Godrej Properties, Glenmark Pharma, PI Industries, Schaeffler India, Dalmia Bharat, Aditya Birla Capital, Emami, Max Healthcare Institute and Deepak Nitrite fell 5-9 percent. Indian Overseas Bank, REC, Power Finance Corporation, UCO Bank, Indian Bank, JSW Energy and Union Bank of India gained 5-11 percent.

In terms of the market value, HDFC Bank lost the most followed by Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank and UltraTech Cement. On the other hand, Asian Paints, Power Grid Corporation of India and Hindustan Unilever added the most to their market-cap. (Disclaimer: MoneyControl is a part of the Network18 group. Network18 is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.)

Among sectors, the Nifty realty index shed 4.3 percent, Nifty metal 3.9 percent, Nifty bank 3.5 percent and Nifty pharma fell 3.3 percent. The Nifty PSU bank index, however, added 3.3 percent.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued to sell for the ninth consecutive week. They offloaded equities worth Rs 8,681.30 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 1,938.94 crore in this week.

The Indian rupee showed recovery in this week, as the domestic currency closed 25 paise higher at 82.93 on September 22 against its September 15 closing of 83.18.