Market extends decline amid broad-based selling,Nifty below 25k

The Indian benchmark indices extended their losses for the second consecutive day on Wednesday, dragging Nifty below 25,000, with sectoral declines across the board, excluding the realty sector.At close, the Sensex was down 318.76 points or 0.39 percent at 81,501.36, and the Nifty was down 86.05 points or 0.34 percent at 24,971.30.
Amid weak global markets,Sensex and Nifty rebounded from their lows on Wednesday, as falling crude oil prices provided some respite, but weaker corporate earnings and foreign outflows weighed on sentiment.
HDFC Life, Dr Reddy's Labs, Grasim Industries, Bharti Airtel and HDFC Bank were the top gainers on the Nifty while losers included Trent, M&M, Hero MotoCorp, Infosys and Adani Ports.On the sectoral front,oil & gas, realty, telecom indices ended in the green, while auto, IT, pharma and media down 0.5-1 percent. The BSE midcap ended flat and smallcap index rose 0.3 percent.
Rupee Close:
On 16 Oct'24,the Indian  rupee witnessed a range- bound trade and strengthened marginally by 4 paise to 84  against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday as easing crude oil prices supported investor sentiments.
Forex traders reportedly stated the rupee traded in a narrow range as a strong dollar and a muted tone in the domestic equities weighed on the local unit, while weak crude oil prices and any likely intervention by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) supported the local currency at lower levels.
Trading Guide: 
Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services reportedly quoted as saying,the national market traded range bound with a negative bias due to the fear of a downgrade in FY25 earnings, which could impact the sustainability of premium valuation. The participants are expecting only a slow pace in earnings expansion in Q2FY25 due to insipid demand and volatility in input prices. The rate of recovery in Q2 compared to Q1 is below expectation.
Market experts have recommended six stocks to buy today-Grasim Industries Ltd, LIC Housing Finance Ltd,ITC Ltd, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders, Indian Hotels, and Firstsource Solutions.

(Business Correspondent)