Indian markets closed lower on Wednesday as rising crude oil prices and Middle East tensions hurt sentiment. Sensex fell 353 points to 73,246, while Nifty slipped 51 points to 22,699. Vinod Nair said, "For long-term investors, the focus can gradually shift from managing near-term volatility to selectively accumulating quality businesses."

Synopsis

Indian markets closed lower on Wednesday as rising crude oil prices and Middle East tensions hurt sentiment. Sensex fell 353 points to 73,246, while Nifty slipped 51 points to 22,699 despite a late recovery.

The Indian stock market closed in the red on Wednesday, with Sensex and Nifty recovering some morning losses to close up to 0.5% lower despite Jio Platforms making a strong debut as India’s second-most valuable listed company. Fears of further escalation in the Middle East conflict and surging oil prices spooked bulls attempting a comeback on Dalal Street.

Sensex plunged nearly 1,000 points during the day, Sensex recovered some losses to close only 353 points lower at 73,.246. Similarly, Nifty 50, which had briefly slipped below 22,500 during the day, closed 51 points lower at 22,699.

Here's how analysts read the market pulse

"Domestic equities remained volatile and traded lower as a fresh spike in crude oil prices and sharp selling in IT stocks weighed on investor sentiment. Oil prices rebounded amid renewed concerns over supply disruptions following Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, overshadowing ongoing diplomatic efforts. Markets are also closely watching the U.S. midterm elections for greater clarity on the geopolitical landscape. Strong earnings from a leading capital goods company, resilience across banking, auto and pharma, and value buying at lower levels helped the indices recover a significant portion of their early losses. Investors will now turn their attention to the U.S. Fed’s policy guidance, particularly signals around the interest-rate trajectory into December. While the market may not be completely out of the woods, the most challenging phase of the correction appears to be factored. For long-term investors, the focus can gradually shift from managing near-term volatility to selectively accumulating quality businesses at attractive valuations,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments.

US stocks

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US stocks wavered on Wednesday as weakness in megacaps such as Tesla and Apple offset chipmaker gains sparked by SK Hynix's bumper results, with focus squarely on hyperscaler earnings and the Federal Reserve's interest-rate decision later in the day.

Memory chipmaker Micron Technology jumped 4.8% to its highest in over two weeks after South Korean rival SK Hynix reported a more than sevenfold jump in quarterly profit. SK Hynix's US-listed shares gained 10.6%.

The Philadelphia chips index was up 0.9%, on track to gain for the fourth straight session.

European markets

Europe's STOXX index was down 0.25%, pulled lower by a decline in shares of Banco Santander , UBS and an 11% slide in the stock of payments company Adyen.

The pound was down a touch at $1.3293, while UK government bond yields edged up 2 basis points to 5.363%, as prices dipped. Gilt yields are heading for their first monthly decline since June this month, down 7 bps.

Most active stocks in terms of turnover

Bharti Airtel (Rs 2,827 crore), Piramal Pharma (Rs 2,684 crore), RIL (Rs 2,563 crore), L&T (Rs 2,362 crore), HDFC Bank (Rs 1,941 crore), Infosys (Rs 1,740 crore), and Syngene International (Rs 1,327 crore) were among the most active stocks on NSE in value terms. Higher activity in a counter in value terms can help identify the counters with the highest trading turnovers in the day.

Most active stocks in volume terms

Ola Electric Mobility (Traded shares: 35.92 crore), Vodafone Idea (Traded shares: 29.21 crore), Piramal Pharma (Traded shares: 11.81 crore), Yes Bank (Traded shares: 9.64 crore), Suzlon Energy (Traded shares: 7.83 crore), Vedanta Iron & Steel (Traded shares: 4.47 crore) and JP Power (Traded shares: 3.66 crore) were among the most actively traded stocks in volume terms on NSE.

Stocks showing buying interest

Piramal Pharma, Syngene International, PG Electroplast, Zee Entertainment, Voltas, HEG and Patanjali Foods were among the stocks that witnessed strong buying interest from market participants.

52-week high

Among the ones which hit their 52-week highs on NSE included Piramal Pharma, Sona BLW Precision, Laurus Labs, Anand Rathi Wealth, Indian Hotels Company, PVR Inox and Ami Organics.

Stocks seeing selling pressure

Stocks which witnessed significant selling pressure were CarTrade Tech, MRPL, Concord Biotech, Tata Teleservices, Kaynes Technology, AWL Agri and Jubilant Ingrevia.

52-week low

Among the ones which hit their 52-week lows on NSE included AWL Agri, Dalmia Bharat, Waaree Energies, Bharat Dynamics, Sumitomo Chemical, Nestle India and KSB.

Sentiment meter favours bulls

Out of the 3,678 stocks that traded on the NSE on October 28, Wednesday, 1,931 stocks witnessed advances, 1,628 stocks saw declines while 119 stocks remained unchanged.

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(You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel)

(What's moving Sensex and Nifty Track latest market news, stock tips, Budget 2025, Share Market on Budget 2025 and expert advice, on ETMarkets. Also, ETMarkets.com is now on Telegram. For fastest news alerts on financial markets, investment strategies and stocks alerts, subscribe to our Telegram feeds .)

Subscribe to ET Prime and read the Economic Times ePaper Online.and Sensex Today.

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