Stock Market Today: The Indian benchmark indices closed in the red yet again on Monday, November 18, extending their losing streak to the seventh consecutive session. This marks the longest losing streak since February 2023, as the bears appear to have a firm grip on the market, leaving little room for the bulls to make a move.

Both the Nifty 50 and Sensex experienced another volatile session, with sharp selling seen in the IT and metals sectors. The weakness in heavyweight stocks such as Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank further intensified the pressure on the indices, causing them to close at levels not seen since late June.

While HDFC Bank and auto stocks provided some support, it was insufficient to reverse the prevailing bearish trend. Nonetheless, their contribution helped the indices recover from their intraday lows. Consequently, the Nifty 50 closed the session with a decline of 0.34%, settling at 23,453. The S&P BSE Sensex closed 110 points, or 0.33%, lower at 77,327.

The broader market painted a mixed picture, with the Nifty Midcap 100 ending the session flat at 54,044, while the Nifty Small Cap index fell by 0.53% to 17,507.

Among the sectoral indices, the Nifty IT index saw a sharp sell-off, falling 2.36%, as traders lowered their expectations of an interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve in December, following rising inflation and stronger-than-expected US retail sales data.

Nifty Oil & Gas index followed suit as they declined 1.53%, while the Nifty Media, Nifty Pharma, Nifty Energy, and Nifty CPSE indices lost over 1%.

On the positive side, the Nifty Metal index gained 1.90%, driven by strong performances from aluminium and copper manufacturers such as National Aluminium Company (NALCO), Hindalco Industries, and Vedanta, propelled by China’s finance ministry’s recent proposal to reduce or cancel export tax rebates for commodities, including copper and aluminium, effective December 1.

Other indices such as Nifty FMCG, Nifty Auto, Nifty PSU Bank, Nifty Realty, and Nifty Consumer Durables all ended the session with gains ranging from 0.27% to 1.05%.

29 Nifty 50 stocks close in the red

A total of 29 of the 50 Nifty constituents ended today’s session in the red, with the IT stocks emerging as the biggest losers. Shares of TCS, Infosys, Britannia Industries and Wipro shed between 2.4% and 3.1%. They were followed by BPCL, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Trent, Cipla, Apollo Hospitals and eight other stocks, which closed with declines of over 1%.

On the winning side, Hindalco Industries stood as the top gainer with a gain of 3.8%, followed by Hero MotoCorp, which rallied 2.8% after the company’s Q2 numbers came above the Street estimates. Tata Steel, Mahindra & Mahindra, HUL, Nestle India, SBI and three other stocks ended the trade with gains of over 1%.

Commenting on today’s market performance, Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services said, “Consolidation continued in the market; a slowdown in earnings growth and a weak rupee due to inflation impacted the sentiment. IT stocks reacted negatively today due to a reduced expectation of a FED rate cut in December, which may pose a delay in spending in the BFSI segment. On the other hand, metal stocks gained some ground after China decided to reduce tax rebates on aluminium and copper.”

Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities said, “Bearish sentiment continued to prevail as markets ended the choppy session on a weaker note for the 7th consecutive session led by weakness in IT, oil & gas, and telecom stocks. However, optimism in banking, metals, auto, and FMCG stocks helped benchmark indices come off their early lows. While Indian equity markets have been seeing fund outflows for more than a month now, surging US bond yields and local earnings failing to meet the estimates have been causing uncertainty amongst the investors.”

Nifty 50: Key levels and trends

Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst, LKP Securities said, “Nifty exhibited some volatility during the day, slipping near a historical congestion level on the daily timeframe. On the daily chart, the index has been trading below the 200-day moving average (DMA) for the past two sessions.”

“The RSI has entered the oversold zone, accompanied by a bearish crossover. While the overall chart setup remains weak, the selling pressure appears to have eased following a prolonged correction. In the short term, the index may recover towards 23,700–23,800. On the downside, support is positioned at 23,200–23,300,” he added.

Disclaimer: The views and recommendations given in this article are those of individual analysts. These do not represent the views of Mint. We advise investors to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.