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| Edited By: |Source: PTI |Updated: Mar 18, 2018, 04:19 AM IST
The BSE Sensex tumbled 340 points before recovering some ground to close at 16,936.89 today --still down 148 points -- as spurt in food inflation ignited investor concerns that interest rates may go up further, and cues from global markets remained weak.
Rate sensitive sectors - realty, auto, banking and consumer durables - bore the brunt of selling as food inflation shot up to 10.6 per cent for week ended October 8 from 9.32% in the previous week.
Analysts said it will add to inflationary pressures, prompting the Reserve Bank to further hike lending rate in the second quarterly review of the monetary policy on October 25.
The BSE 30-share Sensex opened 175 points down at 16,911.85 on the bearish Asian trends, following fall on Wall Street yesterday on signs of a split between France and Germany over plan to solve the euro-zone debt problems at the forthcoming weekend summit.
It fell further as food inflation figures came out, to 16,744.99, a fall of over 340 points.
The NSE 50-issue Nifty also dropped by 47.25 points or 0.92% to 5,091.90.
However, it rebounded at the fag-end on short-coverings, ahead of the expiry of derivatives contract on October 25. It closed at 16,936.89 -- down 148.45 points or 0.87 per cent. Yesterday, it had gained by 337.05 points or 2.01 per cent.
"Currently, economic growth challenge, Europe and quarterly earnings results are dominating the market movements," Milan Bavishi Head Research Inventure Growth and Securities said.
"The mix set of news and reports emerging internationally are making not only the global markets but also the domestic bourses highly volatile," said Shanu Goel Senior Research Analyst at Bonanza Portfolio.
"Overnight US markets had a positive start to the trading session. However, they slipped later on as split emerged between France and Germany on ways to boost the European bailout fund," she added.
FIIs bought shares worth Rs 17.30 crore yesterday, after pulling out Rs 249.20 crore on October 18 as per Sebi data.
In Asia, key indices in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan fell between 2.74% and 0.96%.
European markets were also down in the afternoon trade. CAC was down 0.84%, DAX (1.16%) and FTSE (0.85%).
Overall, 22 of the 30 Sensex-scrips closed in the red, while others finished in the green. HDFC was the top loser with a fall of 4.27 per cent, followed by Jaiprakash (3.49 pc), DLF (3.34 pc), ICICI Bank (2.89 pc), Tata Power (2.59 pc), Sterlite Ind (2.39 pc), Hindalco (2.27 pc), BHEL (1.97 pc), Tata Motors (1.90 pc), Hero MotoCorp (1.84 pc), Coal India (1.70 pc), Bajaj Auto (1.27 pc), M&M (1.26 pc), L&T (1.04 pc), ITC (0.94 pc) and RIL (0.46 pc).
However, Tata Steel rose 1.47 per cent, Jindal Steel (1.32 pc), Bharti Airtel (1.29 pc), Sun Pharma (1.26 pc), Maruti Suzuki (0.97 pc), SBI (0.80 pc) and Infosys (0.69 pc).
Among the sectoral indices, BSE-Realty plunged 2.04 per cent, Auto (1.50 pc), Power (1.34 pc), Capital Goods (1.27 pc), Consumer Durables (1.17 pc) and Bankex (0.86 pc).
The total market breadth on the BSE turned negative, with 1,664 counters gaining ground against 1,126 finishing with losses. The total turnover improved further to Rs 2,580.57 crore from Rs2,448.33 crore yesterday.
