Share Market Today 18 August: The stock market fell in early trade, Sensex fell by more than 200 points

The volatility in the stock market continues. Indian stock indices started the trading session on Thursday with marginal losses, mainly on the back of profit-booking after the recent rally in the market. Barring today's minor losses, Indian stocks were witnessing a steady rise for the last five weeks. At 9.21 am today, the Sensex was trading at 60,135.12, down 125.01 points or 0.21 per cent, while the Nifty was trading at 17,917.60, down 26.65 points or 0.15 per cent.

The benchmark index Sensex had touched the psychological 60,000 mark on Wednesday after more than four months. Due to the softening of inflation, the investment of foreign investors in the Indian capital markets has increased, due to which the market was registering a boom. VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said the fall in inflation raised the possibility of a soft landing for the US economy. In India, the fall in inflation, fall in crude oil, strong growth momentum, good monsoon and above all, FIIs who are frequent buyers have changed the condition of the market.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have been selling equities in Indian markets continuously for the past nine to ten months for various reasons, including tightening of monetary policy in advanced economies, rising demand for dollars and higher returns. Data from American Bonds-NSDL shows that they have pulled out equity of Rs 175,653 crore so far in 2022. However, in July they were net buyers with total equity purchases of Rs 4,989 crore. The data shows that in August so far they have bought equity worth Rs 36,716 crore.