Closing Bell: Markets end lower, led by IT and financial stocks; Sensex slips over 550 points, HDFC twins underperform

The domestic equities moved in sync with US markets to close in the negative

The domestic equities moved in sync with US markets to close in the negative, fuelled by investors’ expectation of stringent interest rate decisions by the Fed. The market closed lower for the second successive day, dragged down by IT and financial sector stocks. NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market volatility, went up by 2.89 per cent to 19.02 levels.   

BSE Sensex continued its downward journey into red territory, losing 566 points at 59,610 levels. Sensex Midcap index, on the contrary, moved up by 103 points and closed the day at 25,175 levels. Furthermore, BSE Smallcap also soared on the second day to the level of 29,695, up by 113 points. On BSE Sensex today, the top stocks were NTPC, Tata Steel, Nestle India, Larsen & Toubro, Asian Paints, and Bharti Airtel. On the other hand, the top losers were Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, TCS, Infosys, and Tech Mahindra.   

Nifty 50 index closed at 17,807, dropping by 149 points on the second consecutive day. Bank Nifty also slipped 435 points and finished the day at 37,632. The top gaining stocks were Coal India, NTPC, Tata Steel, Power Grid Corporation of India, and BPCL. The stocks losing the most were HDFC Bank, HDFC, HDFC Life Insurance, HCL Technologies, and Tech Mahindra.  

The total stocks traded today were 3,512, out of which, 2,163 advanced and 1,251 stocks declined. There were 98 stocks that were unchanged. The number of stocks that got locked in the upper circuit was 505 while 106 stocks were locked in their lower circuit. The number of stocks that made a fresh 52-week high is 183 while around nine stocks hit a new 52-week low today.