The Sensex ended at 62,622, down 347 points or 0.5 per cent, while the Nifty shed 99 points, or 0.5 per cent, to end the session at 18,534. A rejig in the MSCI indices added to the volatility, as passive trackers hustled to realign their portfolios. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) churned shares worth more than Rs 1.26 trillion on account of the rebalancing exercise. They were net buyers to the extent of Rs 3,405 crore, capping a robust month of FPI flows.
Asian markets also on disappointing Chinese macroeconomic numbers which dashed hopes of finding a bright spot amidst global economic distress.
“The rally is being hindered at times due to negative signals from global peers. Concerns about a recession and potential interest rate hikes in western world are impacting the domestic market, but it is nevertheless maintaining the outperformance,” said Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services.
The changes to the MSCI indices—which got implemented on Wednesday—impacted over two dozen stocks. The index provider removed Adani Transmission, Adani Total Gas and Indus Towers from its index. All three stocks ended with losses of between 1.4 per cent and 4.8 per cent. Max Health, Hindustan Aeronautics and Sona BLW were added to the MSCI Standard Index. Meanwhile, Kotak Mahindra Bank saw sharp increase in its weightage. On the other hand, weightages of RIL, Infosys and ICICI Bank were lowered.
On Thursday, markets are expected to react positively to the better-than-expected gross domestic product (GDP) numbers for the March 2023 quarter. India’s GDP growth rate rose for the first time in three quarters to 6.1 percent in January-March, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation said after the market closed. The market was expecting a growth of 5.1 per cent.