Indian equities extended their recent weakness on June 3, with benchmark indices closing lower for the fifth time in six sessions. However, strong buying emerged at lower levels after a steep intraday sell-off, helping the market recover significantly from the day's lows.
The Sensex, which plunged more than 1,000 points during trading, recovered nearly 850 points before closing at 74,346.17, down 304 points or 0.41 percent. The Nifty 50 settled at 23,406, losing 78 points or 0.33 percent after rebounding from an intraday low of 23,151.
Persistent tensions in West Asia, rising crude oil prices, foreign investor selling and caution ahead of the Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy decision weighed on sentiment.
Investors remained concerned about the lack of progress in US-Iran negotiations and renewed hostilities in the Gulf region.
Key concerns included:
Rising risks to global oil supplies
Brent crude climbing above $97 per barrel
Inflationary pressures from higher energy prices
Continued foreign institutional investor (FII) outflows
Market caution ahead of the RBI policy announcement
Higher oil prices could increase India's import bill, put pressure on the rupee and squeeze corporate profit margins.
Information technology shares bore the brunt of the sell-off, making the sector the biggest loser of the day.
Top Nifty losers:
TCS (-8.25 percent)
Tech Mahindra (-6.45 percent)
HCL Technologies (-5.31 percent)
Infosys (-3.96 percent)
Wipro (-2.83 percent)
Other notable losers included:
ITC
Eternal
Larsen & Toubro
Adani Enterprises
Jio Financial Services
SBI Life Insurance
Tata Consumer Products
Defensive sectors helped limit broader market losses.
Top gainers:
Apollo Hospitals (+2.59 percent)
Tata Motors passenger vehicles
InterGlobe Aviation (IndiGo)
Max Healthcare
State Bank of India
These stocks gained between 1.5 percent and 2 percent.
Nifty IT: -5.57 percent
Realty
FMCG
Consumer Durables
Media
Metals
Oil & Gas
Nifty PSU Bank: +1.70 percent
Nifty Private Bank: +0.70 percent
Nifty Pharma: +0.33 percent
Healthcare Index: +0.54 percent
Four stocks ended at their 20 percent upper circuit limits:
Emkay Global Financial Services
John Cockerill India
AksharChem India
Savita Oil Technologies
Several other stocks gained more than 15 percent during the session.
Stocks that declined 7 percent or more included:
Globe International Carriers
Novartis India
TCS
Sayaji Hotels
Marsons
IRIS RegTech Solutions
Persistent Systems
Trading activity remained concentrated in a few counters.
Most actively traded stocks on NSE:
Vodafone Idea – 113 crore shares
IFCI – 32 crore shares
Ola Electric – 26 crore shares
JP Power – 22 crore shares
NHPC – 17 crore shares
Among the 81 stocks touching fresh highs were:
Apollo Hospitals
Arvind
Ather Energy
Federal Bank
Vodafone Idea
IFCI
NMDC
Netweb Technologies
Sky Gold
A total of 61 stocks hit fresh lows, including:
Bajaj Electricals
Emami
ICICI Prudential Life Insurance
ITC
Patanjali Foods
The broader market continued to favour sellers.
Declining stocks: 1,915
Advancing stocks: 1,379
Unchanged stocks: 108
Market technicians noted that the Nifty formed a Doji candle with a long lower shadow on the daily chart, indicating buying interest at lower levels.
Key levels to watch:
Support zone
23,200–23,000
Resistance zone
23,750–23,800
Analysts expect the index to consolidate between 23,000 and 23,550 in the near term. A decisive move above 23,556 could improve the short-term outlook and open the door for a further recovery.
