Stock Market: FIIs down indices; results shine on Coforge
By S Jha
New Delhi, January 20: The foreign institutional investors tanked the Indian indices on Friday, confirming the sideways trends of the stock market ahead of the Union Budget on February 1. The FIIs dumped equities worth Rs 2000 crores to sink the indices even while the HDFC twins sought to give a direction to the market.
HDFC Bank and HDFC continued their stellar run on the bourses having gained almost five per cent in quick time. At one time, HDFC Bank alone lifted Bank Nifty to the day’s high, suggesting that the index may outperform the broader market. But the feverish dumping of the equities by the FIIs pushed the markets lower.
While the US markets have slipped into consolidation modes amid tech giants unleashing a massive scale of layoffs, the Indian indices reversed their upward journey, losing most of the gains in the last two days to be back to the levels of uncertainty, with the Nifty hovering around the 18000 level once more. With the markets entering into the last week of the monthly expiry ahead of the Budget, market participants are expecting a higher level of volatility.
The quarterly results are also in the last phase, and the market is rewarding the outperformer and punishing the laggards. After the market lifted Persistent System on Thursday by over seven per cent on the back of a stellar result, Friday shine fell on Coforge, as the midcap IT zoomed by over six per cent during the day. With Persistent Systems and Coforge delighting the investors with their outperformance, the market would react on Monday to the numbers of Mind Tree, which has given numbers which are below the expectations of the street. Reliance Jio also came out with its result in the off-market hour.
Asian Paints, which was punished on Thursday, for the poor number was further pushed down on Friday, with the scrip falling below the 2800 level. The paint giant is now emerging to be among the bearish stock, extending its poor show from the last year into 2023. The FMCG giant HUL was also punished for the poor number, as the index heavyweight tanked by over three per cent on Friday. The FMCG counters are battling lack of consumption demands, particularly from the rural market. Tata Motors bounced from the support level of Rs 400 to go past Rs 412, and retrace slightly, as the scrip showed technically signs of a reversal.
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