PSU stocks lead selling in small and mid-cap indices

MUMBAI: Small-cap and mid-cap indices nosedived up to 3-4 per cent led by PSUs, which were among the top gainers in the last few months, Siddhartha Khemka, Head of Retail Research at Motilal Oswal Financial Services,said on Tuesday.

Except for IT and pharma, all sectors ended in red. Investors await key domestic data, including CPI and IIP numbers, to be released on Tuesday evening. Globally as well, investors await key US inflation data to be announced on Wednesday for clues on the Federal Reserve’s policy outlook.

"Overall, we expect the focus to shift from mid and small-caps to large-caps in the near term, as investors may turn cautious on the broader market," Khemka said.

Equity market witnessed some profit booking on Tuesday, especially in the mid and small-cap space, a day after Nifty hit the historic 20,000-mark. Nifty opened positive above the 20,000-mark but edged lower to close flat at 19,993 levels, he added.

Nagaraj Shetti, Technical Research Analyst, HDFC Securities, said the sharp sell off in broad market indices are indicating more weakness ahead for the benchmark Nifty in the coming sessions. A decline below 19,850 levels could confirm short-term top reversal pattern for the market. Any upside rally from here could find strong resistance around 20,100 levels.

After witnessing a sustainable upmove in the last seven sessions, the market seems to have started selling pressure from the all-time highs of 20,100 levels on Tuesday with broad market indices like mid-cap and small-cap witnessing sharp sell off from the all-time highs.

After opening with an upside gap of 114 points, the market failed to sustain the opening gains and slipped into sharp intraday weakness in the early part of the session. It later shifted into minor upside recovery in the mid part and finally closed the day near the lows, Shetti said.