Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- ended Thursday’s trading session in negative terrain ahead of the RBI policy announcements by Governor Shaktikanta Das on December 8. After making a cautious start, soon index slipped into deep red, amid selling pressure from foreign institutional investors. Foreign institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 79.88 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data. Some concern also came after Moody's Investors Service issued a negative outlook for global banks in 2024, attributing the negativity to the repercussions of central banks' tightening of monetary policies.
In afternoon session, index continued to trade on lower note, as sentiments were down beat with a private report stating that hiring activity for white-collar jobs witnessed a 12 per cent on-year decline during October-November largely due to fall in recruitment trends in IT-Software, telecom and education sectors. Investors overlooked report that NITI Aayog vice chairman Suman Bery said India has potential to grow at 8 per cent as the country is labour-rich with enough institutional maturity of a functioning democracy. Finally, index ended in negative terrain with marginal losses.
Traders were seen piling up positions in Consumer Durables, Media and Pharma stocks, while selling was witnessed in FMCG, Metal and IT. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Tata Power Company, Indian Energy Exchange and Container Corporation of India. On the other hand, the top losers were Balrampur Chini Mills, Aditya Birla Capital and IDFC First Bank. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 20900 - 21100 calls and 19900 - 20100 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.
