The Indian stock market ended moderately lower on Wednesday, October 18 as downbeat sentiment prevailed after major lender Axis Bank reported lower profit as it had to increase provisions to cover NPLs. In sectoral terms, power and utility names logged gains, while high-tech, banking and financial stocks underperformed the broader market. Recapping the benchmarks, the Nifty 50 eased 0.23% to 10,210.85, and the BSE Sensex closed 0.08% lower at 32,584.35. By 10:21 GMT, the USD/INR currency pair firmed 0.34% to 65,136, while EUR/INR traded up 0.02% to 65.105. The 10-year Indian government bond was unchanged at 6.765%. Axis Bank tumbled 9.5% as quarterly profit fell short of expectations on the back of higher loan loss provisions. Other banks followed suit, with ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank retreating 3.9% and 2.0%, respectively, although their earnings releases are not due out until next week. India’s third-largest software exporter Wipro picked up 1.7% after reporting that fiscal 2Q profit rose 6% y-o-y to INR 21.92 bn (USD 337.5 mn), while analysts, on average, expected INR 20.80 bn. The daily chart shows that the BSE Sensex has bounced off the resistance line at 32,690, while the Slow Stochastic Oscillator is in overbought territory. Consequently, the corrective downturn may be extended in the short term.