Sensex Today | Stock Market Live Updates: Sensex erases losses, trades flat; Nifty nears 19,800; Tata Motors surges 4%; PSU Bank index top sectoral loser
Eight of the 13 major sectoral indexes declined. High weightage IT index lost 0.75%, after
Infosys and HCLTech flagged weak client spending and cut their revenue forecast on Thursday.
Infosys cut the upper end of its annual revenue forecast to 2.5% from 3.5% and HCLTech lowered its revenue outlook to 4%-5% from 6%-8%.
Infosys tumbled as much as 4.5%, while HCLTech shares were volatile, rising 3.5% after losing 1.24% at the open.
Bank index lost 0.85%, dragged by a fall in the largest state-owned lender State Bank of India and private lender Axis Bank after global brokerage UBS downgraded both.
USB downgraded SBI to “sell” from “buy” and Axis Bank to “neutral” from “buy”.
While India’s September retail inflation eased to a three-month low of 5.02%, the rise in U.S. consumer prices rekindled concerns over higher-for-longer interest rates and triggered a slide in global markets.
“From a macroeconomic perspective, India is still in a sweet spot as evidenced by inflation data,” said Anita Gandhi, Founder and Head of Institution at Arihant Capital.
“However, weak revenue outlook from top IT companies indicates concerns on the growth side and could weigh on markets as they were not expecting lowering of guidance.”
The more-domestically focussed small- and mid-caps continued to outperform the blue-chips, rising 0.2% each.
“The earnings season would be the ultimate test for small- and mid-caps as results have to justify high valuations,” Gandhi added.
Small- and mid-caps have risen 33% and 29%, respectively, compared to a 9% rise in Nifty 50 in 2023 so far.
