Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- ended Thursday’s trading session in a negative terrain, dragged by IT, Realty, and PSU Bank stocks. After making a cautious start, index altered between red and green terrains, as traders were concerned after US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reiterated the possibility of further rate hikes to tackle inflation. Traders ignored the provisional data from the National Stock Exchange showing that foreign institutional investors (FII) bought shares worth Rs 4,013.10 crore on June 21.
In afternoon session, weak trade continued in the market, as traders paid no heed towards report that Fitch Ratings raised its forecast for India’s economic growth to 6.3 per cent for current fiscal year 2023-24 from 6 per cent it had predicted previously. This is primarily because of a stronger outturn in the first quarter and near-term momentum. Meanwhile, capital markets regulator Sebi prescribed a standard format for seeking the trading preference of clients for the same product in different exchanges. In last leg of trade, index extended its losses and ended near day’s low point with losses of 85.60 points.
Most of the sectorial indices ended in red except Media and Metal. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Divi's Laboratories, Larsen and Toubro and HDFC Bank. On the other hand, the top losers were Bajaj Finance, Tata Consumer Products and AU Small Asian Paints. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 18700 - 18900 calls and 18900 - 19100 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.
