Indian shares fall as sustained rally comes to a pause

BENGALURU: India’s benchmark indexes fell on Thursday, dragged by financials in a consolidation of sorts after rising for seven consecutive sessions and hitting fresh record highs.

The NSE Nifty 50 index shed 0.30% to 20,875.50 points, while the S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.35% to 69,408.07 as of 10:12 a.m. IST.

“We cannot ignore the possibility of some consolidation now, after the recent rally,” said Ajit Mishra, senior vice president of technical research at Religare Broking.

The Nifty 50 rose 5.77% in the last seven sessions and hit record high levels.

The index was at its most overbought level in more than two years at market close on Wednesday.

Indexes linked to the high weightage financial stocks such as financials, banks, public sector banks and private banks lost between 0.5% and 0.75%.

Analysts expect consolidation around the 21,000 levels, ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) monetary policy decision on Friday.

The central bank is expected to hold rates at 6.50% for a fifth consecutive meeting, according to a Reuters poll.

Paytm tumbled 16% on RBI’s plan to curtail low-value personal loans after it tightened consumer lending rules.

Oil marketing companies such as Bharat Petroleum Corporation , Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Indian oil Corporation gained between 0.2% and 1% following the crash in oil prices.

IT, energy stocks lift Indian shares to new all-time highs

Oil fell to a six-month low of $74.11 per barrel on Wednesday, with high US crude output and gasoline inventories also adding to concerns over global fuel demand.

The fall in crude oil prices is a positive for importers of the commodity like India and its oil marketing companies.

Consumer company Hindustan Unilever lost 2.5%, after several brokerages flagged concerns over near-term earnings outlook.

Media companies TV18 Broadcast and Network18 Media & Investments lost 10% each after announcing a $1.2 billion merger deal.

The two stocks had surged 33.65% and 18.76%, respectively, in the previous six sessions.