An evening walk down Dalal Street
Bears painted the town red on Tuesday as a combination of weak rupee, high crude prices, trade war concerns, and a global selloff crashed the market. The Nifty managed to give up 11,300, falling over 150 points, while the Sensex shed over 500 points.
There was all-round selling visible among sectors such as banks, automobiles, FMCG, metals, pharmaceuticals and IT too. The Nifty Midcap index fell over a percent and that too weighed on the benchmarks.
Tuesday’s fall marked the second consecutive session of a bearish trade. Benchmarks were set for biggest two-day fall in over seven months, according to a report on CNBC-TV18. HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Yes Bank contributed over 80 percent to the fall in Bank Nifty.
Despite a positive opening, there was a sharp selloff in the Indian rupee in the afternoon. The currency fell to a fresh intraday low of 72.74 per US dollar and is was hovering around 72.67 per dollar, at the time of writing this report.
Investors are also likely to have placed a negative bet on the fact that Supreme Court stayed Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) circular with respect to power, shipping and sugar companies.
The opening minutes witnessed some volatility, with benchmarks giving up gains in the first few minutes as well. There was some rangebound move through the morning till lunch. A sharp selloff in the afternoon dragged equities lower and pushed it lower as well.
At the close of market hours, the Sensex was down 509.04 points or 1.34% at 37413.13, while the Nifty fell 150.60 points or 1.32% at 11287.50. The market breadth is negative as 866 shares advanced, against a decline of 1,818 shares, while 163 shares were unchanged.
Coal India, NTPC and M&M were the top gainers, while Tata Steel, Power Grid and Titan lost the most.
“Selling pressure intensified as negative Asian cues and global trade war concerns impacted investor sentiment. Both the benchmark Sensex and the Nifty nosedived towards the end of the trading session to finally close the day with losses of over 1%. Trade remained a focal point for markets, with Canada and the US yet to secure a deal that would replace the North American Free Trade Agreement,” Abhijeet Dey, Senior Fund Manager-Equities, BNP Paribas Mutual Fund said in a statement.