Markets End The Week In Red; Sensex Slumps 460 Pts

A last-minute meltdown on D-street reversed the gains made by equity benchmarks in the early hours of the trade on Friday. The sell-off in the last hour came despite Asian and European markets registering gains. The news of the war intensifying between Russia and Ukraine also changed the tone in the second half.

The 30-share pack Sensex declined 460.19 points or 0.80 per cent to close at 57,060.87. Its broader peer, NSE Nifty50, slumped 142.50 points or 0.83 per cent to 17,102.55.

“After a robust start to the new F&O series, bulls lost momentum midway as selling pressure intensified in highly volatile trades, with strong selling in banking, oil & gas, power & realty stocks leading the slump. Selling came on a day when most of the other Asian indices ended in green and key European gauges were trading higher in early trades. Sharp rise in crude oil prices once again reignited fears of inflationary pressures on the overall economy. The corporate earnings announced so far have failed to cheer the street, leaving investors in a spot,” said Amol Athawale, Deputy Vice President - Technical Research, Kotak Securities.

The benchmark indices have lost more than 2 per cent in April, hurt by weak earnings from domestic technology firms, fears over the fallout of the Ukraine war, surging inflation and strong policy tightening signals from the Fed.

Reliance Industries, hit a record high earlier in the session but closed more than 1 per cent lower.

Axis Bank, which reported its March-quarter results on Thursday evening, fell 6.6 per cent and was the top loser on the Nifty 50 index.

“Nifty witnessed a gravitational pull, unable to take morning optimism in its stride, as it faltered in today’s late trade after WTI oil spiked to $106 a barrel on reports that Germany has dropped its opposition to a EU ban on crude imports from Russia. Traders also fear on implementation of new F&O margin rule levied from Monday (2nd May) followed by US Fed reserve interest rate hike meeting scheduled on 3&4th May-22. As per markets readings Fed will raise interest rates in the range of 50-75 bps,” said Prashanth Tapse, Vice President (Research), Mehta Equities.

Varroc Engineering closed 8 per cent higher after soaring 20 per cent to its highest since January 2020. The auto components maker said it would divest its four-wheeler lighting systems operations in the Americas and Europe.

Varun Beverages ended 2.3 per cent higher after jumping 8.9 per cent to a record high as its quarterly net profit rose.

“The sell-off is indicating a strong possibility of short-term correction in the near future as the current market texture remains volatile and non-directional. For the bulls, the 200-day SMA or 17300 would act as a crucial resistance level and above the same,  the Nifty could move up to 17400-17550 levels. On the flip side, 17000 and the 50-day SMA are the two important support levels for the index and below 17k, another correction wave up to 16900-16800 is not ruled out,” said Athawale.