Markets halt 4-days winning spree as concerns over Omicron surge cautious; Sensex near 59,500, Nifty 50 around 17,725; HDFC twins, RIL, HUL, TCS weigh

6 Jan 2022 , 10:05 AM

Indian markets took a reverse turn in Thursday’s opening bell with benchmarks Sensex and Nifty 50 halting their four-days winning spree. A broad-based sell-off was witnessed across sectoral indices with IT, Banking and Consumer Durables stocks taking the most beating.

Investors carried panicked profit booking in large volumes after India’s active Covid cases neared to 1 lakh in a day with the Omicron virus spreading rapidly. Also, weak global cues dragged down sentiments.

At around 10.03 am, Sensex was trading 59,530.62 down by 692.53 points or 1.15%. The index has touched an intraday low of 59,352.17.

Nifty 50 was performing at 17,724.75 lower by 200.50 points or 1.12%. The index has clocked the day’s low of 17,671.95.

On BSE, in terms of sectoral indices, the Bankex and IT index slipped over 525 points and 515 points respectively. The Consumer Durables index shed over 400 points.

Sensex bulls were – Maruti Suzuki, Bharti Airtel and Ultratech Cement.

Bears on Sensex were – HDFC, Tech Mahindra, HDFC Bank, Kotak Bank, HCL Tech, Infosys, Reliance Industries, NTPC, ICICI Bank, TCS and HUL dived between 1-2%.

Investors are worried about renewed and stricter lockdown restrictions which would slow down economic growth recovery. India posted 90,928 Covid cases in the last 24 hours with 325 death – rising by 56.2% from the previous day. Of the total, Omicron virus variant rose rapidly to 2,630 cases in the last 24 hours compared to 2,135 cases on the previous day.

On the global front, Asian markets traded lower tracking the big sell-off of Wall Street. Freefall in global tech stocks and a spike in treasury yields took a major toll as investors reacted to US Federal Reserve’s meeting minutes where it signalled to hike interest rates faster than expected due to inflationary pressures. Globally, the current withdrawal of liquidity which has been the main reason for rising in all asset classes mainly equities could see money being taken off the table. Chinese stocks will also see selling pressure as the “Evergrande’ crisis has seen reality stocks get re rerated.

Overnight, on Wall Street, US stocks recorded a sharp dip as Federal Reserve minutes indicate tapering followed by a rate hike from as early as March which makes markets very vulnerable to withdrawal of easy liquidity. Dow Jones closes lower by over 390 points while Nasdaq falls a whopping 500 points as profit booking across the board sees the biggest loss of 2022.