Market erases early gains, Sensex falls over 200 points

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Mumbai: The BSE Sensex gave up all its early gains in choppy trade Thursday and ended lower for the third straight session by falling over 200 points due to selling in metal, PSU, auto and banking stocks amid fresh fund outflows and a weak trend in the global market. The 30-share Sensex opened higher at 35,282.33 points and advanced further to the day’s high of 35,364.50 on the back of fresh buying by domestic investors amid further strength in the rupee. It, however, slipped into the negative zone on selling pressure at improved levels, following a weak opening of European equities, and slipped below the 35,000-mark to hit a low of 34,937.98 before closing at 34,981.02, recording a fall of 218.78 points, or 0.62 per cent.

The gauge had lost 575 points in the previous two sessions. Similarly, NSE Nifty 73.30 points, or 0.69 per cent, to close at 10,526.75. The indices closed with losses for the week, with the Sensex declining 476.14 points, and the broader NSE Nifty falling 155.45 points during the period. According to analysts, market failed to hold the opening gains as weak global market and selling in metals and PSU banks dragged the indices. Global growth concerns due to trade war, rising interest rate and lower liquidity in the financial markets added to the woes, they added  Offloading of positions by participants ahead of the long weekend as markets will remain closed Friday on account of “Guru Nanak Jayanti”, too, negatively impacted investor sentiment here, brokers said.

The Indian currency continued its upward rising streak for the seventh straight day by rising 45 paise to 71.01 in late afternoon trade against the American currency (intra-day) at the interbank forex market.     Among Sensex constituents, M&M was the worst hit, dropping 3.02 per cent, followed by Tata Steel shedding 2.28 per cent. Other laggards include Wipro, Axis Bank, Coal India, PowerGrid, SBI, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank, IndusInd Bank, NTPC, Bharti Airtel, HUL, Vedanta, Tata Motors, Sun Pharma, RIL, Asian Paints, HDFC Bank, Kotak Bank, Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp, ITC and Infosys, falling up to 2.10 per cent. Bucking the trend, Adani Ports, L&T, TCS, ONGC and HDFC ended with gains up to 1.73 per cent.

Sectorally, the BSE metal index emerged worst performer by falling 1.84 per cent, followed by power index shedding 1.21 per cent, realty 1.20 per cent, PSU 1.17 per cent, bankex 1.16 per cent, consumer durables 1.06 per cent, oil and gas 0.85 per cent, auto 0.69 per cent, healthcare 0.55 per cent, infrastructure 0.55 per cent, FMCG 0.31 per cent, teck 0.19 per cent and IT 0.10 per cent. While, capital goods index managed to end in the positive zone. In the broader markets, the midcap index fell 1.12 per cent and the smallcap gauge lost 0.79 per cent. Shares of oil marketing companies, IOC, BPCL and HPCL, lost up to 3.08  per cent on profit-booking.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares to the tune of Rs 1,652.04 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth a net of Rs 606.73 crore, Wednesday, provisional data showed. Elsewhere in Asia, Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.23 per cent, Taiwan shed 0.28 per cent, Korea’s KOSPI fell 0.32 per cent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.08 per cent. Japan’s Nikkei, however, rose 0.65 per cent. In European markets, Paris CAC fell 0.61 per cent, Frankfurt’s DAX lost 0.53 per cent, while London’s FTSE fell 0.72 per cent in their early session. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average erased early gains to end almost flat Wednesday.