Closing Bell: Market halts five-day winning run, Nifty slips below 16700

Amid a volatile trading session, the Indian market halted the five-day winning run

The Nifty Auto index gained around 2 per cent to advance for the second straight day despite choppy trade on Tuesday. The rupee has depreciated and is currently trading at 76.50 against the US dollar. The crude oil price has fallen and is trading at USD 96.82 per barrel. Oil prices have reduced further on Tuesday, sliding to a two-week low on ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine eased fears of further supply disruptions, and also surging COVID-19 cases in China fuelled concerns about slower demand. 

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, went up by 6.73 per cent to 32.80 levels. The Nifty 50 index was fallen by 208 points and closed at 16,663 levels. Bank Nifty has also dropped by 289 points and ended the day at 35,022. The Sensex settled at 55,776 tumbling 709 points. Similarly, the Sensex MidCap index has plunged today by 159 points and ended the day at 23,154 levels. Similarly, the BSE SmallCap has gone downhill by 238 points and closed at 26,987 at day end. 

On the BSE Sensex today, the top stocks were Nestle India, Asian Paints, Titan, Bajaj Finserv, and Bharti Airtel. On the other hand, the top losers were Tata Steel, Kotak Bank, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, and Reliance Industries. 

The total stocks traded today were 3488 out of which 1342 advanced and 2045 stocks declined, 101 stocks were unchanged. The number of stocks that were locked in the upper circuit are 17 and 4 stocks were locked in the lower circuit today were 4. The numbers of stocks that have made 52-week high are 116 and there were 34 stocks that made a 52-week low today.