Stock Market: No rate cut but pause theme plays out; market stays sideways
By S Jha
New Delhi, March 23: The Indian equity indices tanked in the last hour as the weekly option expiry settlement held ground on the bourses on Thursday. But the US equity markets were higher in the afternoon session after the investors sifted the statements of Jerome Powell to make a sense of the direction of the US Federal Reserve in the latter part of this year.
The broader consensus view emerging veers around the possibility that there may not be further rate hikes. Also, there is no possibility of rate cuts either. At best, the US Fed may be pausing the spree of the rate hikes. The rate hike pause also may bring the much needed relief, as the consumption globally has taken a major hit following rising costs of personal and property finance.
The European Central bank has also maintained that there is not much of financial stability risks in Europe. Earlier, the Credit Suisse Bank had given jitters to the financial markets world over. The rate pause narrative is gaining traction on the back of fear that any further step up may make the financial institutions more vulnerable.
It has also been stated by the market participants that the US Fed is looking at the realistic possibility of inflation cooling off. This is also the theme in India, as Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikant Das had said in his Kochi lecture recently that the worst of inflation is behind.
The institutional action for a third day in a row was positive as the domestic institutional investors raised the scale of cash buy in the market. The foreign institutional investors continued to be net seller in the cash market. The net institutional buy in the cash market was Rs 674 crores (DIIS Rs 1669 crores – FIIs Rs 995 crores).
Yet, the market trend remain sideways, with a small range in which the bourses are aligned. Sensex took a cut of 289 points. Nifty was down by 75 points. Bank Nifty was most volatile as is the nature of the index on the day of weekly expiry, taking a cut of 382 points. Nifty still stays above 17000 mark, having closed the day at 17076. But Bank Nifty has lost the 40,000 level to close the day at 39616.
Accenture is cutting over 19000 jobs. The IT bellwether is the market leader, and it somehow captures the mood in the tech space where the job losses are gaining pace.
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