Sensex slides 451 pts, Nifty falls below 23,650 as Bears return

The Nifty and Sensex started the day with slight losses on Monday, giving up some of their previous session's gains. FMCG stocks helped the market, but pressure from IT and auto stocks kept the indices in the red. Reliance Industries and banking stocks weighed heavily, while Adani Enterprises, Cipla, and Sun Pharma saw positive movement.
At close, the Sensex was down 450.94 points or 0.57 percent at 78,248.13, while the Nifty dropped 168.50 points or 0.71 percent to 23,644.90. Both indices slipped over 1 percent from their intraday highs, according to information. Market breadth remained weak, reflecting broad-based selling pressure.
On the sectoral front, all sectoral indices traded in the red except for the Nifty Pharma index, which gained 0.53 percent. The Nifty Auto index led the losses, down 0.93 percent, followed by the Nifty Bank index, which shed 0.86 percent after leading the intraday recovery earlier. Other indices, including energy, infrastructure, and IT, fell between 0.4 and 0.7 percent.
Rupee Close:
On 30 Dec'24,the rupee fell 5 paise to close at 85.53 against the US dollar in early trade on Monday, as dollar demand from importers, foreign fund outflows and a muted trend in domestic equities dented investor sentiments. Forex traders reportedly stated the rupee witnessed heavy volatility on Friday and opened on a weak note on Monday amid significant dollar demand linked to the expiry of December currency futures and maturing positions in the outstanding forwards.
Trading Guide:
Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services reportedly quoted as saying, prevailing subdued sentiment on account of FIIs selling and a strengthening dollar continued to drag the market. While IT & pharma gained as investors continued to bet on defensive stocks to prevent short-term volatility. Concerns over high valuation are impacting the broad market. The upcoming policy announcements in the US and domestic Q3 earnings will be keenly watched by investors.
Market experts have recommended five stocks to buy-CEAT Ltd, Campus Activewear Ltd, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL), Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) and ICICI Bank Ltd.

(Business Correspondent)