In the 20 trading sessions, they were buyers on just two instances — on February 18, when they had bought domestic shares worth Rs 4,786.6 crore and on February 4, when they purchased shares worth Rs 809.2 crore.
Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) threw their weight around, buying equities worth Rs 12,308.63 crore, but that was not good enough to bail the markets out.
Nifty finished the day at 22,124.70 breaching all major crucial support levels. It went down by a whopping 420.35 points or 1.86%while the BSE Sensex tanked 1,414.33 points or 1.90% to close at Rs 73,198.10. BSE listed companies saw their market capitalisation wipe out by Rs 9 lakh crore.
US economic woes weighed on the Street as the world’s largest economy grew slower at a 2.3% annualised rate last quarter after accelerating at a 3.1% pace in the July-September quarter. The sentiments showed on domestic markets with significant selling pressure seen in the IT stocks.
Sectorally, IT and auto were punished the most by the investors falling by as much as 6%. At the index level, Nifty IT plunged 4.2% while Nifty Auto was down 3.9%. All 16 sectors closed in the red today.Out of the 2,972 stocks that traded today on the NSE, 2,416 closed in the negative with advances seen in just 489 stocks. In this, 789 stocks hit their 52 week lows.Nifty also recorded its worst February-month decline since Covid, ending with cuts of 5.9% as the Trump factor weighed on D-Street, causing massive sell-off across sectors though more severe in IT, auto and pharma stocks.
The heartbeat index fell by 6.4% in February 2020 just ahead of the March nationwide lockdown because of Covid-19. In February 2022 and 2023, the Nifty’s fall was 3.2% and 2%, respectively. Meanwhile, its highest returns came in 2021 when Nifty shot-up by 6.6% and in 2024 it was at 1.2%.
Commenting on the day’s action, Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities said that Nifty remains in the bearish zone. In the near term, Nifty is expected to find support around 21,800-22,000, he said, adding that a sustained move above 21,800 could lead to a significant recovery, while failure to hold this level may trigger another sharp decline.
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