Stock Market Highlights: Sensex ends 254 points lower, Nifty declines to 17,711 as market extends losses to second day

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Rupee may trade in 73.90-74.40 range in next couple of sessions: ICICI Securities' Raj Deepak Singh

The dollar gained strength on the back of a surge in US treasury yields, which are rising on fears that the Federal Reserve will start tapering its bond purchases before the end of the year, and possibly begin raising interest rates next year, said Raj Deepak Singh, Head-Derivatives at ICICI Securities.

"The jump in commodity prices has fueled the worries over short-term inflation pressures. Investors remained vigilant ahead of the speeches of major central banks' policymakers across the globe to get a hint on future monetary stances. However, a sharp downside was prevented on persistent FII inflow and as crude oil prices dipped from highs. The rupee may trade in the range of 73.90-74.40 in next couple of sessions," he said

Rupee edges lower to end at 74.14 against dollar

The rupee declined by eight paise to close at 74.14 against the dollar on Wednesday amid a strengthening greenback overseas and weakness in equities back home.

Market expected to remain volatile on Thursday: Rahul Sharma of Equity99

Rahul Sharma, Co-Founder of Equity99, said the market is expected to remain volatile on Thursday given the monthly F&O expiry. Derivatives contracts for the month of September will expire at the end of Thursday's session. 

There is heavy volatility in the market as the 50-scrip gets closer to the expiry day, he said. "We have seen a good recovery in the index from the lower levels... Going ahead, on the expiry day, we are expecting same volatility to flow. Support will remain at the previous day’s low of 17,575, followed by 17,500-17,450. On the upside, 17,750 will act as immediate resistance, followed by 17,800-17,850 levels," he said.

Nifty short-term trend remains negative: HDFC Securities' Nagaraj Shetti

"A small positive candle was formed at the lows with minor upper and lower shadows. Technically, this pattern indicates the formation of a high wave type pattern. Normally, such formations after a reasonable decline could hint at the possibility of a halt in the current trend... This needs to be confirmed with a reasonable upmove in the subsequent sessions," said Nagaraj Shetti, Technical Research Analyst at HDFC Securities.

Resistance for Nifty seen at 17,790-17,800 levels: Shrikant Chouhan

Shrikant Chouhan, Head - Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities, expects an expansion of the trading range in the market on Thursday.

"The Nifty is finding resistance at the 17,790-17,800 levels, beyond which, we would see short-covering up to 17,860/17,880 levels. Below 17,690, the chances of hte index reaching 17,600 would be bright," he said.

Market At Close | Midcap index rises over 1% to 30,274

Market At Close | NTPC, Coal India, Power Grid top gainers; HDFC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Asian Paints top laggards

Coal India still offers great potential: Prakash Diwan

Market expert Prakash Diwan told CNBC-TV18 he still sees great potential in Coal India. "You could look at NTPC. Some of power names like Tata Power are spreading themselves absolutely in the right spots on the value chain," he said. 

He said the best way to play the oil theme is through ancillary services. "For instance, every time oil goes up, you have a lot of the allied services that start buzzing to life. There is a small company, Asian Energy Services, which does tremendously good work, gets contracts from Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India. They have had a lean quarter; they have done so well. They have done Rs 25 crore profit," he said. 

"The other area that one needs to look at is the pipeline network. There are so many companies that will start getting businesses, whether it is compressors, is pipelines or the infrastructure that goes into expanding oil networks. I think there is a lot in evaluating that entire value chain. But if you have to buy some of the largecaps, Coal India still offers great potential," he said. 

Market At Close | Financial stocks pull market lower; gains in metal, PSU stocks lend support

Here are key highlights of today's session:

--Sensex, Nifty close in the red, but off lows

--Financial stocks pull market lower; metal, PSU stocks lend support

--Nifty Bank falls 202 points to 37,743; midcap index rises 323 points to 30,274

--NTPC, CIL, Power Grid, 3 other PSU stocks among top 10 Nifty gainers 

--Pharma counters see buying in Wednesday’s session; Sun Pharma up 5%

--Metal stocks off lows; Hindalco, JSW, JSPL top gainers

--Financial stocks fail to hold on to intraday recovery; HDFC, Kotak Mahindra Bank top Nifty losers

--Power stocks move higher on strong demand; Tata Power rises 8%

--IEX, GMR Infra, Nalco, JSPL, City Union Bank top midcap gainers; Info Edge, Metropolis, Godrej cons, IRCTC, BEL top losers

--HDFC AMC, Max Health slip following block deals

--Midcap outperformance keeps market breadth in favour of bulls; NSE advance-decline ratio at 3:2

Closing Bell | Sensex ends 254 points lower, Nifty at 17,711 as market extends losses to second straight day

The Sensex index ended 254.3 points or 0.4 percent lower at 59,413.3 and the broader Nifty50 benchmark shed 37.3 points to settle at 17,711.3. Losses in financial and consumer stocks pulled the market lower, though gains in metal and PSU stocks, such as Coal India, NTPC and Power Grid, kept the downside in check. (Read more on what the market looked like at the close)

Private banks witness heavy selling pressure with the Nifty Private Bank index falling the most among NSE sectoral indices, down 1.1 percent.

Cyient jumps nearly 6%

Shares of Cyient jumped 5.5 percent to Rs 1,052.8 on the BSE after the company said that it is strengthening its design-led manufacturing capabilities by installing a new SLM®280 system following international support from SLM Solutions.

Energy markets look rather frothy, says Norbert Rücker, Head Economics and Next Generation Research, Julius Baer

Energy markets remain in the headlines as natural gas and oil prices surge to multi-year highs, said Norbert Rücker, Head Economics and Next Generation Research, Julius Baer.

"We believe that energy markets look rather frothy and see the current dynamics as characteristic for the usual hiccups around cycle peaks," Rucker added.

“Many likely wonder, what is happening on energy markets? There is a straightforward denominator. The V-shaped recovery overburdens slower-moving and more complex energy supply chains. While this by itself should be known, too many little hiccups finally lead to a fierce upwards spiral. These hiccups include coal supply disruptions in China and elsewhere, natural gas supply disruptions due to maintenance and outages in Norway and Russia, as well as soft wind conditions and drought, curbing wind production in Europe and hydropower in China earlier this year. On top, mechanisms such as Europe’s market-based emission trading scheme seem to become an unintended booster of prices under such conditions. That said, there seems to be too much froth in both natural gas and oil markets,” he added.

Rucker believes that the current energy market dynamics rather fit with the excesses and hiccups usually happening at the peak of a cycle. He does not believe they are the result of more concerning and lasting structural imbalances.