Upcoming state assembly polls outcome, rupee fall and arrest of Huawei CFO in Canada keep investors on tenterhooks
The benchmark stock market indices lost more than 1.50% on Thursday following a global sell-off and investor coverns over crude oil prices, rupee and upcoming state election results.
The BSE Sensex plunged 572.28 points, or 1.59%, ended at 35312.13. The 30-share gauge has lost 928.87 points in the last three sessions.
The broader NSE Nifty lost 181.75 points, or 1.69%, to settle at 10601.15. During the intra-day trade, the 50-share index went as low as 10588.30.
A fresh foreign fund outflow and rupee falling below 71 per dollar during the intra-day trade also made the investors cautious.
"Capital markets had a rough day, as they are trying to navigate too many data points such as re-emergence of sharp weakness in Indian rupee, Opec meeting outcome in terms of production cut and upcoming results of five state assembly elections. The nervousness is quite evident as there is sharp sell-off across the industries, especially in those stocks where there are corporate governance concerns," said Jagannadham Thunuguntla, senior vice-president and head of research at Centrum Broking.
Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, YES Bank, Adani Ports and Reliance Industries were the biggest laggards among Sensex pack, tanking as much 4.63%.
The broader market too did not a very cheerful day as both the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices ended lower by 1.54% and 1.36%, respectively.
"We feel investors should be ready with a shopping list of stock ideas, as markets can surprise on upside if macros stabilise, and election results come out palatable to markets," Jagannadham said.
All the 19 sub-sectoral indices compiled by Sensex were in the red at the end of the day, with BSE Energy taking the pole position and falling 2.35%. Other top losing sectors were Realty and Auto (2.26%), Telecom (2.11%) and Consumer Discretionary Goods and Services (1.83%).
"Markets have been behaving extremely volatile for last one month and still there's no sign of slowing down, thanks to the upcoming events – Opec meet and assembly elections results. Such condition poses threat mainly to the traders as they end up losing on both sides," Jayant Manglik, president at Religare Broking, said.
Fall in the Asian markets due to the arrest of a top executive of Chinese telecom giant Huawei in Canada also triggered the Indian equity market on Thursday. Asian markets nosedived after Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, who is also the company founder's daughter, was arrested for extradition to the US for suspected Iran sanctions violations, dealing another blow to the US-China relations.
"Nifty index opened gap down in line with the weak global cues and witnessed sustained selling pressure throughout the entire trading session. It breached its 200 DEMA and formed a Bearish Marubozu candle on the daily scale. It has been making lower highs - lower lows from last three trading sessions and also broken two crucial support of 10777 and10650 zones. Now till it holds below 10777 it could extend its weakness towards next meaningful support of 10550 then 10480 zones while on the upside immediate hurdle is seen at 10650 then 10777 levels," a report from Motilal Oswal said.
As per the provisional data, the foreign institutional investors (FII) bought shares worth Rs 72.47 crore on Thursday while the domestic institutional investors (DII) sold shares of Rs 389.78 crore on a net basis.
Crude oil prices slipped below the $60 per barrel level amid a crucial meeting of Opec members.
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