Fund outflows dents equities, banking stocks sink

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SME TImes News Bureau | 27 Jan, 2021
Continuous fund outflows, along with pre-budget nervousness and profit booking, heavily dented the Indian stock market on Wednesday.

Besides, weak global cues, mixed quarterly results and upcoming derivatives expiry lead to the bear run in the market.

On Wednesday, FIIs were net sellers to the tune of Rs 1,688.22 crore in BSE, NSE and MSEI in the capital market segment.

In the previous session on Monday the FIIs net sold Rs 765.30 crore.

The two key indices -- S&P BSE Sensex and NSENifty50 -- both fell around 2 per cent with the barometer index falling close to 1,000 points.

The fall has led the domestic equity market to erase all gains for CY21YTD and turn negative.

The sell-off was triggered despite IMF's projection of India's GDP growing at 11.5 per cent in 2021.

Globally, shares in Asia fell due to some profit-taking, as investors grew wary of stretched valuations.

Similarly, Europe's share indexes opened lower as investors focused on the US Federal Reserve meeting and US tech giants' earnings.

On the domestic side, Nifty fell the most in over a month as investors booked profits ahead of the Union Budget and monthly F&O expiry.

Heavy selling pressure was witnessed across sectors, led by banking, finance, automobile and oil and gas stocks.

The Sensex closed at 47,409.93, lower by 937.66 points, or 1.94 per cent, from its previous close.

The Nifty50 also fell below the psychological 14,000-mark.

It ended the day's trade at 13,967.50, lower by 271.40 points, or 1.91 per cent, from its previous close.

"Nifty has entered intermediate correction and 13,773 is the next support. Now on the next bounce up, it could face resistance in the 14,281-14,350 band," said Deepak Jasani- Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities.

"FPIs have been sellers on more days lately, however their quantum of selling is still not very large."

Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said: "Going ahead, markets may continue to remain highly volatile ahead of Monthly expiry and Union Budget 2021. The ongoing earning season despite being good is more or less factored in and is thus resulting in profit booking."

"Investors would now keep a watch on Fed monetary policy which is due on Thursday and the roadmap for implementation of the US stimulus for further market direction."

Geojit Financial Services' Head of Research Vinod Nair said: "It is well-known that a fall in FIIs inflows will be the biggest risk to the liquidity-driven rally. Indian bourses mirrored mixed sentiment from global peers with a downward rally owing to consecutive days of FII selling."

"Barring the defensive FMCG segment, all sectors traded in the red zone with banking and pharma stocks being the worst hit. The global markets were mixed today ahead of the US Fed meeting amid uncertainty over the US stimulus. We should expect higher volatility in the coming days' given pre-budget event risk."