Stock market falters after rise in US bond yields

Mumbai, March 12 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Indian equity market gave up all its gains made during the first half of the day to end in the red on Friday, largely due to global factors including the rise in US bond yields.

Bond yields in the world's largest economy rose during the day after US President Joe Biden signed the $1.9 trillion stimulus package.

"After opening on the high side, the market suddenly changed its mood and closed at the lowest point of the day and week. It was expected that bond yields would go up after the announcement of the passage of the stimulus bill but the pace was faster than expected, leading to crash landings in Indian markets," said Shrikant Chouhan, Executive Vice President, Equity Technical Research at Kotak Securities.

Sensex closed at 50,792.08, lower by 487.43 points, or 0.95 per cent, from its previous close of 51,279.51.

It had opened at 51,660.98 and touched an intra-day high of 51,821.84 points and a low of 50,538.43.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed at 15,030.95, lower by 143.85 points, or 0.95 per cent, from its previous close.

Siddhartha Khemka, Head of Retail Research at Motilal Oswal Financial Services noted that European shares slipped from a one-year high as a rise in US treasury yields fuelled an exit from risk assets.

"The yield on the benchmark US 10-year Treasury note rose again on Friday morning in the aftermath of the stimulus passage, hitting 1.6 per cent," he said.

He added that on the domestic side, although Nifty had gap-up opening led by positive global cues, it came off by afternoon on the back of weakness in index heavyweights. Banking and financials, FMCG, metals and pharma stocks came under major selling pressure.

Khemka said that while the long term structure of the market continues to remain positive, markets may face some hurdles in the near term till the concerns over the rising bond yields, commodity prices and risk of increase in inflation recede.

"Investors would look for cues from global markets and Institutional flows which has been patchy for last few days. Volatility is likely to remain as market would look at global cues for further direction," he said.

Net outflow of foreign institutional investments was Rs 942.60 crore, and that of domestic institutional investments was Rs 163.87 crore.

On the Sensex, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki India and ICICI Bank were the major losers, while the only gainers were Power Grid, Titan Company, ONGC, Infosys and Bajaj Finance.

Source: IANS