In Roller-Coaster Ride, Sensex Jumps 694 Points; Investors Eye US Elections

New Delhi, Nov 5: In a roller-coaster ride, stock indices in India swung between red and green on Tuesday's session.

Sensex finally closed the day at 79,476.63 points, up 694.39 points or 0.88 per cent, 24,213.30 points, up 217.95 points or 0.91 per cent. Benchmark Sensex is however some distance behind its all-time high of 85,978 points.

Nifty Bank, Financial Services, Metal, PSU Bank, and Private Bank were the top movers, NSE data showed.

In a highly volatile trade yesterday, Indian stock indices hovered substantially lower, largely due to sustained selling by foreign portfolio investors. At one point during the session, Sensex was about 1,500 points lower, but it was able to pare some of the losses later. Foreign fund outflows have been a concern over the past month.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold stocks worth Rs 94,017 crore in India through October, suppressing the stock market's overall performance. In the process, they became net sellers in India, after having remained buyers for four months. Important to mention is that the total stocks they sold in India in October were the highest-ever in a month, National Securities Depository Limited data showed.

"It is important to understand that India's underperformance is striking: while S&P 500 is up 20.45 per cent YTD Nifty is up by only 10.36 per cent YTD. Clearly, domestic issues are weighing on markets. With two thirds of Nifty 50 companies missing their earnings estimates in Q2, Nifty 50 earnings for FY25 has been drastically revised down to less than 10 per cent from the consensus 15 per cent earlier," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

"With this kind of earnings downgrade it would be difficult to sustain the current valuation. This is the rationale of the relentless FII selling which might continue for some more time," said Vijayakumar.

Going ahead, investors, both in India and across the world, will be looking at the US election of November 5, being closely contested between the presidential candidates, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, and the US Fed monetary policy meeting Thursday. Also, earnings of India Inc. will be on the radar. (ANI)