Market breadth favoured declines Domestic stock markets gave up all of the intraday gains to close lower on Wednesday amid high volatility.
The SP BSE Sensex fell 100.53 points to close at 38,132.88, while the Nifty ended at 11,445.05, down 38.20 points from the previous close.
A selloff in energy, pharma and auto stocks dragged the markets to the negative zone in afternoon trade.
Earlier in the session, the Sensex had climbed as much as 242.52 points to 38,475.93, and the Nifty hit an intraday high of 11,546.20.
Here are 10 things to know:In the Nifty 50 basket of shares, 34 stocks ended lower while 16 advanced.Top laggards on the 50-scrip benchmark index, Nifty, were Hindustan Petroleum, NTPC, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel and Eicher Motors, closing between 1.67 per cent and 2.82 per cent lower.Market breadth favoured declines, with958 stocks on the NSE closing lower against801 finishing higher.The gauge of volatility on the National Stock Exchange - India VIX - saw a sudden spike as the index jumped 5.69 per cent.Analysts expect more volatility in the coming session, ahead of the expiry of monthly derivatives contracts due on Thursday.Banking space has outperformed with a significant margin while auto and metals have underperformed in the recent past For the near term, support on the downside is seen at 11,200 levels, said Sahaj Agrawal of Kotak Securities.The Nifty Energy index finished 1.28 per cent lower.
Selling pressure in heavyweight Reliance Industries, which closed 1.48 per cent lower, weighed on the sectoral index.Thirteen of the 19 sector gauges compiled by the BSE finished lower.
The declines were led by the SP BSE Energy and Utilities Indexes which settled 1.01 per cent and 1.08 per cent lower respectively.On the flipside, the gauge of banking shares on the National Stock Exchange - Nifty Bank - jumped 1.27 per cent to hit a record high of 30,262.55, before settling with a gain of 0.46 per cent for the day.Mid- and small-cap shares outperformedlarger peers, with the SP BSE MidCap and SmallCap Indexes ending 0.67 per cent and 0.90 per cent higher respectively.(With agency inputs)Get the latest election news, live updates and election schedule for Lok Sabha Elections 2019 on TheIndianSubcontinent.com/elections.
Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and Instagram for updates from each of the 543 parliamentary seats for the 2019 Indian general elections.