Beware of tricky January, budget moves of mkt

Sensex and Nifty-50 fell close to 1 per cent for the second session in a row on profit taking amid negative global cues, though foreign portfolio investors were still buying shares.

The Sensex closed 470 points down at 48,564 while the Nifty-50 closed

152.40 points lower at

14,281.30. The broader market fall was even sharper with the BSE Mid-cap Index down 2.01 per cent and BSE Smallcap Index, 1.89 per cent.

“The news of fresh Covid cases in China has spooked the markets across the globe, including India, as participants are worried about global economic recovery,” said

Ajit Mishra, VP-research, Religare Broking.

It's time to remain cautious as the JanuaryFebruary period has seen big market falls in the past—the biggest fall after a sharp rise took place on January 21,

2008—and later between

2015 and 2018 the market saw sharp falls postUnion Budget

With little headroom for the government to present a popular budget, profit taking before budget day cannot be ruled out.

“Unusual strength in the dollar index and sustained run up in the commodities have battered the sentiment of the equity market. It has triggered selling in commodities and the Nifty Metal Index closed 4.57 per cent lower,” said Shrikant Chouhan, analyst-equity technical rese-arch, Kotak Securities.

Foreign portfolio investors were net buyers of equities worth Rs 650.60 crore while the domestic institutions were net sellers by Rs 42.51 crore.