Market Wrap, August 6: NIFTY50 slips below 24,600, SENSEX falls 166 points; NIFTY Pharma tumbles 2%

The Indian stock market closed lower on Wednesday, August 6, as investors’ sentiment was weighed by tariff fears and the Reserve Bank of India’s policy decision.

The central bank kept the key policy rate unchanged at 5.5%, with the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) opting to maintain a neutral stance, as inflation eased sharply to a multi-year low and growth remained steady.

The market participants also remain cautious following US President Donald Trump’s fresh threat to India. Trump on Tuesday said India has not been a good trading partner and announced that he will raise the tariffs on New Delhi "very substantially" over the next 24 hours because it is buying Russian oil.

Rate-sensitive stocks like auto and realty dropped following RBI’s decision.

According to exchange data, on Tuesday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold equities worth ₹22.48 crore on a net basis, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased ₹3,840.39 crore worth of equities.

On Wall Street, the stocks ended lower on Tuesday as investors weighed the impact of tariffs and corporate earnings, which also kept them on edge.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 61.90 points, or 0.14%, to end at 44,111.74; the S&P 500 fell 30.75 points, or 0.49%, to 6,299.19; and the Nasdaq Composite lost 137.03 points, or 0.65%, to 20,916.55.

Most of the Asian shares were seen higher in a muted trading session on Wednesday, after discouraging signs about the US economy sent Wall Street shares declining.

South Korea's KOSPI closed unchanged, while Japan's Nikkei rose 0.62%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.23%, and the Shanghai Composite settled 0.45% higher.

As many as 3,071 stocks traded on the NSE on Wednesday. Out of this, only 846 advanced and 2,128 stocks declined, while 97 scrips remained unchanged.

This indicated that the market breadth was in favour of declines.

A total of 35 stocks hit their 52-week highs, while 85 stocks touched their one-year lows. Besides, 62 stocks hit their upper circuit limits, and 95 touched their lower circuit bands on Wednesday.

NSE-listed firms' market capitalisation stood at ₹442.28 lakh crore at the end of the session.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, stood at 11.96 levels, surging 2.11%.

The broader market closed lower, with the small-cap gauge underperforming the main equity indices.

The Nifty Smallcap 100 index dropped 1.13% to end at 17,662.60 levels, while the Nifty Midcap 100 index closed 0.80% lower at 56,749.75 levels.

Except for Nifty PSU Bank (0.59%), all the sectoral gauges closed lower on Wednesday.

Nifty Pharma tanked 2.03%, taking the lead among losers, mostly dragged by losses in Ajanta Pharma (-3.64%), Divi’s Lab (-3.53%) and IPCA Laboratories (-3.37%).

Nifty IT (-1.74%), Nifty Realty (-1.51%), Nifty Media (-1.18%) and Nifty FMCG (-0.90%) were the other top losing sectors.

Wipro was the biggest laggard, falling 2.5%, followed by Sun Pharma (-2.37%), Jio Financial Services (-2.06%), Tech Mahindra (-2.05%) and IndusInd Bank (-1.97%).

On the contrary, Asian Paints led the pack of gainers, rising 1.94%. HDFC Life Insurance (1.88%), Mahindra & Mahindra (0.87%), Bharat Electronics (0.69%) and Coal India (0.67%) were the other top gainers on the 50-share index.