Sensex falls 561 points, Nifty ends at 10,305; financials lead losses

Reversing opening gains, Sensex and Nifty closed lower in a volatile session today as traders turned cautious in domestic market amid weakness in Asian indices including Nikkei, Hang Seng and SGX Nifty. Ahead of F&O Expiry, Sensex closed 561 points lower at 34,868 and Nifty fell 165 points to 10,305.

HCL Tech, IndusInd Bank, PowerGrid and Infosys were among the top losers. On the other hand, ITC, Bajaj Auto, Bajaj Finance, NTPC and Titan were among the top gainers. Barring FMCG, all the other sector-based indices ended in losses with banking, telecom, power and realty stocks ending in the red.

Earlier at the opening bell, Sensex rose 250 points to 35,679 and Nifty climbed 58 points to 10,529. However, due to volatility in Asian and European indices and negative sentiment due to rising coronavirus cases across the country, the market closed almost 1.58% lower, erasing yesterday's gains. On Tuesday, Sensex ended 519 points higher to 35,430 and Nifty climbed 159 points to 10,471.

Commenting on today's trend, Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said, "Inspite of opening positive, markets finally ended negative, in sync with negative global cues. The rising cases of virus infections worldwide, especially in the Americas, unnerved the global markets. Domestic cases too show no signs of abating and this must be weighing in on the investors."

"Markets witnessed sharp correction, ahead of Monthly F&O expiry tomorrow, coupled with negative global cues. News of Co-operative Banks coming under RBI supervision, seems to have spooked the banking stocks," said, Aamar Deo Singh, Head Advisory, Angel Broking.

Asian markets that were volatile early morning fell majorly by the afternoon session. This was on back of negative opening of European stocks. According to experts, markets erased the early boost from Wall Street amid fears over the surge in coronavirus cases in various parts of the world.

Meanwhile, companies set to announce their earnings are Indian Oil, Balmer Lawrie, United Breweries, GAIL, Canara Bank, Prestige, Anup Engineering, Rane Holdings among others.

Expressing views on Nifty's technical outlook, Ajit Mishra, VP - Research, Religare Broking said," The existence of major hurdle at 10,550(200 EMA) in Nifty combined with caution ahead of the monthly derivatives expiry pushed the bulls slightly on the back foot. Finally, the Nifty index ended near the 10,300 mark."

"The immediate supports for Nifty are placed around 10,200 followed by 10,100 whereas resistances are seen around 10,480 and 10,550", said  Ruchit Jain (Senior Analyst - Technical and Derivatives, Angel Broking.

On the currency front, Rupee ended stronger at 75.72 per dollar as against the previous closing of 75.64 per dollar today.

Expressing views on rupee's outlook, Anuj Gupta (DVP-Commodities & Currencies Research, Angel Broking) said,"We are expecting appreciation in rupee supported by the record increase in forex reserves. It increased by $5.92 billion to touch lifetime high of $507.644 billion. Weakness in dollar is also supportive for USDINR."

According to Health Ministry figures released this morning, 15,968 coronavirus cases reported in the past 24 hours, taking the total count in India to 4,56,183. The death toll has gone up to 14,476 with Covid-19 claiming 465 lives in 24 hours.

Worldwide there are currently 9,385,015 confirmed cases and 480,435 deaths from the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak as of June 24, 2020.

Share Market Highlights: Sensex ends 561 points lower, Nifty at 10,305; PowerGrid, Cipla, BPCL top losers

India's oil imports plunge to its lowest since October 2011 in May