The Indian stock market extended losses on Thursday, with Sensex and Nifty in the red as traders braced for expiry-day volatility, while analysts highlight strong headwinds and tailwinds for Dalal Street.
Sensex dropped over 200 points to 77,733 while Nifty 50 fell more than 95 points to 24,341 on Thursday morning. Broader markets remained mixed, with Nifty Smallcap 100 in the green and Nifty Midcap 100 in the red.
Bajaj Finance and IndiGo shares gained around 2% to lead gains on Sensex, while Tech Mahindra and Bharti Airtel shares rose over 1% each to follow. M&M shares meanwhile fell more than 1% to lead losses on the benchmark index, while Kotak Mahindra Bank shares dropped nearly 1%.
This came as India VIX, which measures volatility in the market, dropped 1.4% to 11.69. Nifty Auto, Nifty Financial Services and few other sectoral indices opened in the green, while Nifty Metal, Nifty IT, Nifty FMCG, Nifty Pharma, Nifty Private Bank, Nifty Consumer Durables and others slipped into the red.
Today’s fall in the stock market comes even as oil prices slightly eased, with Brent crude falling below $89 per barrel after OPEC cut its forecast for global oil demand growth in 2026. The overall market breadth remained slightly positive, with NSE seeing 1,467 advances against 1,089 declines, while 113 stocks remained unchanged.
What lies ahead for Dalal Street?
The market is likely to continue along the consolidation phase and sideways movements in the near-term, said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments. He noted that the tailwind for the market is the strong fundamentals coming from robust growth and earnings momentum which, in turn, is getting support from sustained liquidity flows from domestic investors. High frequency indicators like GST collections, freight, auto sales and credit growth are big positives that can surprise growth and earnings on the upside, he added.
However, Vijayakumar believes that the main headwind continues to be the elevated crude prices and the uncertainty regarding the crude price trends. “The ideal investment strategy at this juncture is to remain invested and continue to invest systematically,” according to the analyst.
Nifty’s swing higher from the 20 DMA yesterday and the hammer formed thereof appears to have set up conditions to force a trend reversal, aiming 24,540-24,666 initially, followed by 24,850- 25,100, said Anand James, Chief Market Strategist at Geojit Investments.
He however expects a consolidation on approach to 24,490. If this holds, upside prospects will reduce, but a collapse aiming at 24,240-24,060, is less expected, the analyst further said.
