Indian stock indices close in red this week, IT stocks top losers

New Delhi [India], January 17 (ANI): Indian stock indices closed the week on a low, hinting that the volatility was far from over. On Friday, Sensex closed at 76,619.33 points, down 423.49 points or 0.55 per cent, while Nifty closed at 23,203.20 points, down 108.60 points or 0.47 per cent. Nifty IT slumped the most at 2.68 per cent.
Experts noted that FPI selling is continuously creating pressure on the indices. Additionally, the upcoming oath of Donald Trump is expected to make markets more volatile, as his first executive orders will be closely watched to assess follow-up actions on tariffs and taxes.
"The markets remained volatile for yet another session, slipping nearly half a per cent after three consecutive days of gains. Early weakness, driven by IT and banking heavyweights reacting to earnings, pulled the benchmark indices lower. However, resilience in key players like Reliance, ITC, and LT helped limit the decline," said Ajit Mishra - SVP, Research, Religare Broking.
He said persistent FII selling and a mixed start to the earnings season are restricting upward momentum. "Until clear signs of reversal emerge, we advise maintaining a "sell on rise" strategy for the index while focusing on stock-specific opportunities during the earnings season," Mishra noted.
The Nifty-50 Index and Sensex each lost 1 per cent in the past week. Even the mid-cap index and small-cap index lost around 1 per cent in the past week.
"Decent 3QFY25 earnings of large cap stocks were unable to improve the market sentiment amid rising crude oil prices (+5 per cent) and continued depreciation of INR (-0.6 per cent) in the past week," said Shrikant Chouhan, Head Equity Research, Kotak Securities.
Besides, weak domestic economic growth also reflected on the stock markets.
In 2024, Sensex and Nifty accumulated a growth of about 9-10 per cent each. In 2023, Sensex and Nifty gained 16-17 per cent, on a cumulative basis. In 2022, they gained a mere 3 per cent each. Weak GDP growth, foreign fund outflows, rising food prices, and slow consumption were some of the hurdles, keeping many investors at bay in 2024.
Sensex now remains around 10,000 points lower than its all-time high of 85,978 points. Sensex has so far slumped 2.5 per cent this New Year. (ANI)