After taking a breather for a day, the markets fell steeply on Wednesday as rupee hit 18-month low and weak earnings weighed on sentiment.
Though the benchmark Sensex opened in green, it dropped 306.33 points, or -0.88%, to close at 34344.91. It gyrated between 34302.89 and 34668.47 in a see-saw trade. This is its weakest closing since April 19, when the gauge had finished at 34,427.29. The index had lost 1199.03 points so far in last seven days.
The broader Nifty fell below 10500 mark and remained in red for the entire day. The 50-share index opened at 10521.10 and ended at 10430.35, plunging 106.35 points, or 1.01%.
Stocks of the oil companies too dragged the indices as also the global market movement that was subdued after the US President Donald Trump tempered optimism over the progress made so far in trade talks with China. The US stocks closed lower overnight as uncertainty over trade policy and other geopolitical issues hit sentiment.
State-owned oil companies HPCL, BPCL, IOC, ONGC and OIL plunged on worries that the government may ask them to share the burden of higher petrol and diesel prices. The rupee fell to a 18-month low on Wednesday ending at 68.48/$ down 0.56%. The domestic currency saw this level last on November 26, 2016. The currrency opened at 68.14/$ and hurtled down, closing at 68.48/$, which is near its all-time low of 68.85/$.
On the sectoral front, 17 out of 19 sectors complied by BSE remained in the red zone with BSE Metal (-3.93%) and BSE Oil and Gas (-3.45%) lost the most. BSE Energy (-2.52%), Basic Material (-2.11%) and Realty (-1.26%) were the other losers. On NSE, except the Nifty PSU Bank (2.84%) all the other sectors closed negative.
“Markets were back to its losing ways as the Nifty slipped 106 points. The sentiment was weak in the morning but it became weaker in the afternoon as the European markets opened with a downward gap. Metals, Realty and Media suffered the most. The PSU Banks did well as SBI gaining another 3.6% after the management forecast a better picture for March 2020. The Nifty continues to be on a weak wicket with support now expected in the 10325 - 10330 range,” VK Sharma, head private client group and capital market strategy at HDFC Strategy said.
The broader market also had a bad day as both the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices falling 0.24% and 0.47%, respectively.
Tata Steel, ONGC, Dr Reddy's, IndusInd Bank and ITC were the least contributing stocks on BSE plunging as much as -6.57%. However, State Bank of India, NTPC, Larsen and Toubro, Tata Motors and ICICI Bank were the most gaining stocks rising 3.56%.
Meanwhile, as per the provisional data, the foreign institutional investors (FII) sold shares worth Rs 311.11 crore and the domestic institutional investors (DII) bought shares worth Rs 789.78 crore on a net basis on Wednesday.
In the Asian region, Japan's Nikkei fell 1.18%, China's Shanghai Composite index lost 1.41%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng retreated 1.82%. European shares were down as well, with Frankfurt's DAX declining 1.47% and London's FTSE too fell 0.65%.
VOLATILITY RUN
- Sensex had lost 1199.03 points or 3.37% so far in last seven days session
- The rupee fell to a 18-month low on Wednesday ending at 68.48/$ down 0.56%
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