Market wrap: SENSEX, NIFTY decline for second straight session, NIFTY Metal index closes at record high

The Indian equity benchmarks ended lower for a second straight session on Wednesday, January 14, as investors' sentiment remained cautious amid continuous selling by foreign institutional investors. Spike in price of crude oil also dented sentiment as geopolitical tensions escalated after US President Donald Trump urged Iranians to keep protesting and said that the 'help was on the way'.

The SENSEX fell as much as 442 points and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday low of 25,603.95 dragged down by losses in heavyweights like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Tata Consultancy Services, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Maruti Suzuki and Hindustan Unilever.

The SENSEX ended 245 points lower at 83,383 and NIFTY50 index declined 67 points to close at 25,666.

The foreign institutional investors have been persistently selling shares in the Indian markets and they have so far this month sold shares worth ₹18,585 crore, according to the data from National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL).

Brent crude moved above $65 per barrel on the back of rising tensions between Iran and US. Higher crude oil price does not augur well for the Indian economy as it inflates the import bill because India imports large chunk of its crude oil requirement.

Sectoral landscape

Ten of 15 major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended lower dragged down by NIFTY IT index's 1.08% decline. NIFTY Realty, FMCG, Auto, Pharma, Healthcare, Consumer Durables and Financial Services indices also declined between 0.2%-0.9%.

On the flipside, NIFTY Metal index closed at an all-time high tracking surge in price of precious and industrial metals. PSU Bank index ended over 2% higher tracking strong set of earnings posted by the state run lenders.

Union Bank of India jumped 7% after its net profit jumped to ₹5,017 crore. Union Bank of India reported a steady set of earnings as its net-interest income remained largely unchanged at ₹9,328 crore, as against ₹9,240 crore in the same period last year. The net-interest margins trimmed down to 2.76% from 2.91% in Q3FY25. On a sequential basis, the net interest income jumped 5.8% QoQ with flattish interest income growth.

On the asset quality front, the bank posted a great improvement in GNPA and NNPA. The GNPA improved 79 bps to 3.06% and NNPA improved 31 bps to 0.51%.

Broader markets outperformed their larger peers as NIFTY Midcap 100 index rose 0.3% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index gained 0.7%.

NIFTY50 gainers and losers

Asian Paints was top loser in the NIFTY50 index, the stock declined 2.4% to close at ₹2,817. TCS, Tata Consumer Products, Maruti Suzuki, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank, Tech Mahindra and HDFC Bank also fell between 1.32%-2.15%.

On the contrary, Tata Steel, NTPC, Axis Bank, Hindalco, ONGC, Ultratech Cement, Eternal and Jio Financial Services were among the top gainers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was neutral as 2,153 shares ended lower while 2,102 closed higher on the BSE.