An Evening Walk Down Dalal Street, 26th Sep 2018 | Nifty holds on to 11000

After a day of relief rally on Tuesday (September 25, 2018), equity benchmarks have closed on a lower note on Wednesday. However, the key, psychological mark of 11,000 has been held by the Nifty. In fact, the index had brief fall below 11,000-mark as well. So, an end above 11,050 could be rather seen as a relief by the bulls.

Traders could have been cautious ahead of US Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates, which will be declared later in the day.

Index heavyweights such as ITC, Infosys, TCS and Reliance Industries were all buzzing in trade. While RIL tried to fight for the bulls and held fort along with HDFC Bank, the others were a drag on the indices.

There was major selling seen among information technology names. The likes of TCS, Infosys and Wipro, among others dragged the index lower and managed to weigh on frontline indices as well. Automobiles, consumer and PSU banks were the other big losers. The Nifty Midcap index closed with marginal gains.

All eyes are also on the outcome from the FOMC meeting, which will be announced later in the day. “The outcome of the US Fed meeting on Wednesday is expected to result in another hike in benchmark interest rates, raising the federal funds rate by 25 basis points from its current range of 1.75-2 percent to 2-2.25 percent,” Edelweiss Investment Research has said in a note.

At the close of market hours, the Sensex closed 109.79 points or 0.30% lower at 36542.27, while the Nifty was down 13.70 points or 0.12% at 11053.80. The market breadth is negative as 1,266 shares advanced, against a decline of 1,330 shares, while 197 shares were unchanged.