Markets end settlement day lower; oil & gas, FMCG, auto lose

The benchmark indices ended lower on the settlement day of June series. The sell-off in oil & gas, auto, FMCG, pharma, select power and metal stocks dragged the Nifty below 4300 mark. However, the buying in financial (barring SBI) along with L&T, Unitech, Sterlite, Tata Power, Infosys, ACC, Suzlon, Grasim, ABB and Hindalco capped some of losses.

The markets witnessed volatility throughout the session. They traded positive in the first half of the trade but post 1:45 pm, both indices remained under pressure due to heavyweights.

The 50-share NSE Nifty will be using free-float methodology from Friday, June 26, which results into change in weightage of heavyweights. NTPC and ONGC (will lost 4.5% in weightage) will lose their weightage, which tanked 2.22% and 2.97% on the NSE, respectively. However, Infosys, ICICI Bank and L&T will gain their weightage, which went up 0.09%, 1.54% and 1.38%, respectively.

The Nifty was keep hovering around 4250 and 4300 levels during the day. It slipped 1.19% or 51.10 points, to settle at 4241.85, after seeing a day's high/low of 4337.95 and 4221.15. The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 14,345.62, down 0.53% or 77.11 points, after seeing an intraday high of 14,578.46 and low of 14,261.14.

Jagdish Malkani, Country Head of Taib India said, "For a pre-Budget, the Nifty will be in 4,100-4,300-4,400 range. I don't see it breaking 4,000 easily but as I said the worry is continuing FII selling in the cash segment, so I would certainly keep a hock like eye on that. But otherwise India continues to be a sweet spot, the World Bank news about India probably being the fastest growing major economy next year – all these are good stuff."

There was a huge spurt in volumes due to expiry; total traded turnover stood at Rs 1,24,076.92 crore as against Rs  1,06,553.99 crore. This included Rs 23,522.19 crore from the NSE cash segment, Rs 95,928.31 crore from NSE F&O and the balance Rs 4,626.42 crore from the BSE cash segment.