Mumbai: Ignoring strong global trends, the BSE Sensex on Thursday dropped 139 points to 16,146.33 as investors offloaded long positions, mainly in IT, metals and banking on the expiry of August derivative contracts and renewed fears of interest rate hike as food inflation neared double digit.
Sustained selling by Foreign Institutional Investors also dampened the market sentiment. FIIs sold shares worth Rs 883.48 crore on Wednesday as per provisional data. They have sold shares worth Rs 9,000 crore so far this month.
The Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share index, Sensex, moved erratically between 16,373.84 and 16,104.34 before closing at 16,146.33 - down 138.65 points or 0.85 per cent. on Thursday, it had dipped over 213 points or 1.29 per cent.
The broad-based NSE 50-issue Nifty fell 49.30 points or 1.01 per cent to end at 15-month low of 4,839.60, level not seen since May 25, 2010.
Brokers attributed the market fall to the settlement of pending positions by investors on the last day of the expiry of the derivative contracts.
Besides, food inflation shot up to 9.80 per cent for the week ended August 13, from 9.03 per cent in the previous week, worrying investors that RBI may further hike key rates making loans costly, hitting corporate margins, they said.
IT stocks fell for the second day in a row on concerns over another recession in the US as well as in Europe, major overseas markets for Indian IT companies.
Fall in heavyweights like Infosys, HDFC, HDFC Bank and RIL contributed nearly 100 points to the Sensex slide.
Among the sectoral indices, BSE-IT tumbled 2.07 per cent, Metals by 1.86 per cent and Bankex by 1.40 per cent.
However, some of the realty, pharma and FMCG stocks attracted good buying and ended with small to marginal gains.
"Stock markets ended in the negative terrain despite firm global cues as traders generally give deliveries of the battered stocks on the last day of expiry of August contract, leading to decline in values. Tomorrow, we may see some bounce back if global markets remain firm." said CNI Research CMD Kishor P Ostwal.
Asian stocks, except Taiwan, ended strong on firm US markets on Wednesday on strong manufacturing data. Key indices in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and South Korea ended up between 2.92 per cent and 0.56 per cent.
European shares too displayed a positive trend in the afternoon. The CAC was up by 0.94 per cent, the DAX by 0.88 per cent and the FTSE by 0.15 per cent.
Overall, 19 out of 30 index-based scrips recorded losses while others registered gains. Jindal Steel was the top loser with a fall of 4.52 per cent, followed Jaipra Asso (4.50 pc), Hero MotoCorp (3.10 pc), Infosys (2.68 pc), HDFC (2.65 pc), Tata Steel (2.64 pc), HDFC Bank (1.88 pc), Hindalco (1.88 pc),
SBI (1.34 pc) and RIL (0.87 pc).
However, realty major DLF rose 2.67 per cent and was the top gainer from the Sensex pack, followed by Tata Motors (1.91 pc), Sun Pharma (1.27 pc), Bharti (1.18 pc), ONGC (1.11 pc) and Tata Power (0.94 pc).
The total market breadth at BSE remained negative with 1,638 counters ending in the red against 1,138 finishing in the green. Total turnover was up at Rs 2,438.24 crore from Rs 2,204.92 crore on Wednesday.
Comments
0 comment