Rising volatility keeps markets on the edge – Market News

Broader market came under selling pressure on Tuesday as rising volatility and high valuations provided investors a recipe for profit booking. The smallcap and midcap index on BSE corrected as much as 2% each intraday, while the volatility index India VIX rose for the ninth consecutive session to 17.01.

This was the third consecutive session of decline for both the broader market indices after they hit their lifetime high levels in intraday trading on May 3.

On Tuesday, the BSE Smallcap index ended 1.7% lower at 45,920.86 points, while BSE Midcap index fell 1.9% to 41,211.15 points. At the same time, Nifty ended 0.6% lower at 22,302.50 points and Sensex fell 0.5% to 73,511.85. Overall investor wealth also declined by Rs 4.87 trillion to Rs 398.4 trillion.

Deepak Jasani, head of retail research at HDFC Securities said the market will remain volatile until the results of General Elections are out on Jun 4. He said investors are likely to continue to sell on rise.

The benchmark indices too have followed a similar trend, though selling has been steeper in broader markets. The selling on Tuesday was broad-based with 2,794 stocks ending lower on BSE and 1,034 stocks rising.

Market participants said the rising volatility could have propelled some investors to close leveraged positions. Apart from this, with the last leg of earnings season, there could’ve been correction in some stocks whose earnings performance failed to justify the rich valuations, analysts said.

There have been concerns over excessive valuations of stocks in midcap and smallcap space since March. Despite this, the broader market has shown resilience.

The ongoing volatility has been primarily induced due to nervousness amid the ongoing General Elections.

Text for separate box on VIX

India VIX, which is a gauge for investor expectations on market volatility in next 30 days, rose for the ninth consecutive session on Tuesday amid the Lok Sabha polls.

The index rose 3% to 17.05 levels on Tuesday. With this, it has now risen a whopping 67% in nine sessions.

Market participants expect the metric to rise even further towards 22-25 levels in the run up to the counting of votes on Jun 4.