Dalal Street indices snap 3-day winning run

Mumbai: Indian equities ended weak on Thursday, snapping their three-day winning run, after an early rally fizzled out. Traders are watching out for comments on interest rates from US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell who will speak at the annual Jackson Hole summit on Friday.

Sensex fell 180.9 points, or 0.28%, to close at 65,252. Nifty declined 57.3 points, or 0.29%, to end at 19,386. Both indices had risen as much as 0.7% earlier in the day before the late sell-off with the Nifty hitting the session’s high of 19,584.

“Nifty faced stiff resistance around the previous high of 19,600,” said Apurva Sheth, head, market perspectives and research, Samco Securities. “It seems that bears are in no mood to let go of bulls so easily.”

Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) net bought shares worth ₹1,524.8 crore, while their domestic peers too pumped ₹5,796.6 crore into local equities on Thursday. A chunk of these institutional flows into the market could be on account of the block trades on the exchanges.

Wall Street commentators are expecting Powell to reiterate the Fed’s commitment to bring down inflation while signalling that there could be at least one more interest rate hike this year.

“All eyes would be on the outcome of the Jackson Hole meeting, which would provide some direction on interest rates going forward,” said Siddhartha Khemka, head – retail research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.