Stock market today: BSE Sensex and Nifty50, the Indian equity benchmark indices, opened in red a day after the Union Budget 2024 speech by FM Nirmala Sitharaman. Both BSE Sensex and Nifty50 were marginally down. At 9:18 AM, BSE Sensex was trading at 80,377.99, down 51 points or 0.063%. Nifty50 was at 24,451.90, down 27 points or 0.11%.
The domestic markets experienced a significant downturn on Budget day following an increase in
capital gains tax
.
However, they managed to recover towards the latter half of the session, closing with only marginal losses.
“While the overall sentiment remains positive without signs of weakness, the market appears overbought by various measures. Therefore, we advise against aggressive long positions,” said Rajesh Bhosale, Equity Technical Analyst, Angel One.
The short-term trend of Nifty remains negative with high volatility, but the emergence of sharp buying and the formation of a positive candle pattern on Tuesday suggests a potential bullish reversal in the coming sessions, says an ET report.
Global markets showed mixed performance, with S&P 500 futures falling 0.4%, Japan’s Topix declining 0.4%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dropping 0.2%, and Euro Stoxx 50 futures rising 0.3%. Commodity currencies touched multi-week lows due to weakness in Chinese demand, while the yen surged as short-sellers exited ahead of a central bank meeting.
Oil prices rebounded on Wednesday after several days of decline, supported by falling U.S. crude inventories. Expectations for a nearing ceasefire deal in the Middle East kept prices from continuing to climb. Brent crude futures for September rose 46 cents to $81.47 a barrel, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for September increased 42 cents to $77.38 per barrel.
Foreign portfolio investors turned net sellers, offloading shares worth Rs 2,975 crore on Tuesday, while domestic institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 1,418 crore.
Several companies, including L&T, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finserv, and SBI Life, are set to announce their first-quarter results on Tuesday. The net long position of foreign institutional investors reduced from Rs 3.37 lakh crore on Monday to Rs 2.83 lakh crore on Tuesday.
