GST-driven rally loses steam as Sensex ends 150 pts higher; broader market falls

Markets rallied in the morning on the back of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s GST 2.0 announcement, but as Thursday’s session progressed, investor sentiment fizzled, with indices paring from early gains. The BSE Sensex closed at 80,718.01, up by only 150 points, while Nifty was up by only 0.08%, at 24,734.30. 

Both the benchmark indices had hit a day’s high by rising 1% with Sensex jumping 888.96 points to 81,456.67, while Nifty surged 265.7 points to 24,980.75.

Shares of Mahindra and Mahindra topped the list, which was up 5.90%, followed by Bajaj Finance, rising 4.10%, and Apollo Hospitals by 2% in the Nifty 50 index today.

Sensex was dragged down by Maruti Suzuki, which was down by 1.78%, followed by Bharat Electronics, which declined by 1.61%, and HCL Tech, down by 1.57%. In the Nifty 50 pack, HDFC Life, Tata Consumer Products and Wipro led the fall. HDFC Life declined by 2.83%, and the other two companies dipped by 2.75% and 1.71% respectively.

Amongst the sectoral indices, Nifty Auto performed better than its peers, though it came down from the 2% rise to 0.85% during intraday trading. Similarly, Nifty FMCG dropped from a 1.7% rise to only 0.24%.

FMCG index’s decline could be attributed to the decline in shares of Varun Beverages and United Spirits, as aerated and carbonated beverages, caffeinated and other non-alcoholic drinks have been moved to the new 40% tax slabs.

Nifty PSU Bank was the top loser, dipping by 1.02%, followed by Nifty IT, which was down by 0.96%. All the constituents of the PSU Bank index traded in the red, with Indian Overseas Bank declining sharply by nearly 4%. Only LTI MindTree in the IT sector was in green, while heavyweights such as Infosys, Wipro and TCS dragged both the sectoral and benchmark indices down. 

Broader markets snapped their winning streak, as all the indices were in the negative territory. Nifty Midcap 50 fell by 0.54%, and Nifty Smallcap by 0.71%. VIX came down by 0.7%, to 0.85.