Sensex Today: Indian equity benchmark indices turned volatile on Wednesday after opening marginally higher, as mixed moves in banking stocks weighed on sentiment. Following RBI intervention, the Indian rupee
staged a recovery and strengthened to around 89.81 against the US dollar.
At 10:00 am, the BSE Sensex erased early gains and was trading flat near the 84,675 mark. During the session, the benchmark touched an intraday low of 84,639 and a high of 84,889. The Nifty was hovering around 25,860.
Among Sensex constituents, SBI, Bajaj Finance, Eternal and Axis Bank were the top gainers, rising about 1% each, while ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank featured among the key laggards.
In the broader market, both the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices slipped into negative territory, declining around 0.2% each.
In commodities, MCX Silver March futures scaled fresh record highs near Rs 2,05,665. The Indian rupee, which opened at 91.07 against the US dollar, soon witnessed a sharp recovery and was trading around 90.05 per dollar later in the day.
Global Cues
Across Asia, markets recouped some losses and were trading with modest gains by mid-day. Japan’s Nikkei, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and China’s Shanghai Composite rose 0.2–0.4 percent each, while South Korea’s KOSPI and Taiwan markets advanced around 0.7 percent each.
Overnight in the US, Wall Street ended on a mixed note. The S&P 500 slipped 0.24 per cent, marking its third straight decline, as investors assessed the delayed release of the November jobs report. The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.23 per cent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.62 per cent.
FII, DII data
On the institutional front, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers of equities worth Rs 2,060.76 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 770.76 crore on Tuesday, December 16.
