Sensex plunges by 585 points, IT and pharma stocks suffer

Benchmark indices BSE Sensex and NSE’s Nifty 50 fell on Monday dragged by sell-off in banking, pharma and metal stocks amid foreign fund outflows and weak Asian cues. The Indian rupee weakened against the US dollar, following mixed sentiment in Asian peers.

BSE Sensex closed lower by 217.86 points, or 0.60%, at 36,323.77. The Sensex had shed 6.78 points in the previous session on Friday after scaling a life-time high of 36,740.07 intra-day. The Nifty 50 fell 80.05 points, or 0.74%, to close at 10,936.85. In intraday trade, the 50-share index touched a low of 10,926.25 and a high of 11,019.50.

BSE MidCap and SmallCap plunged 2.45% and 2.51%, respectively.

All the sectoral indices on BSE, except IT and teck, ended in negative territory, with metal, basic materials, pharma and healthcare losing over 3% followed by telecom, industrials, energy and consumer durables. IT and Teck gained 0.78% and 0.33%, respectively.

NTPC Ltd, Infosys Ltd, Housing Development Finance Corp. Ltd, Tech Mahindra and Yes Bank were among the major gainers, whereas Tata Steel Ltd, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd, Tata Motors Ltd, Sun Pharmaceuticals Ltd and Bharti Airtel were among the top losers.

Meanwhile, foreign investors sold shares worth a net ₹ 1,104.65 crore on Friday, while local investors purchased shares worth ₹ 872 crore, provisional data showed.

The Indian rupee weakened against the US dollar. The rupee opened at 68.51 a dollar and touched a high and a low of 68.49 and 68.71, respectively. The 10-year bond yield was trading at 7.84% compared to its previous close of 7.79%. So far this year, rupee lost 6.98%, while foreign institutional investors have sold $ 853.89 million in equity and $8.77 billion in debt.

Inflation based on wholesale prices shot up to 5.77% in June on increasing prices of vegetables and fuel items. The Wholesale Price Index (WPI)-based inflation stood at 4.43% in May and 0.90% in June last year.

Moreover, investors turned cautious after India’s trade deficit widened to its highest in more than five years in June, the trade ministry said on Friday, driven largely by a surge in oil imports.

In global markets, European shares mostly opened higher, although the gains were marginal. Germany’s DAX was up 0.5% before giving up most of those gains. France’s CAC 40 rose 0.16% and the pan-European STOXX 600 inched up 0.23%.

Asian markets also declined as investors fret an escalating trade battle between China and the United States may soon start to hurt the real economy. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.36%.

Oil prices retreated below $71 a barrel as Saudi Arabia was said to offer extra crude to some customers, while the US reportedly considered tapping emergency supplies, to offset output losses around the world, reported Bloomberg. Futures in New York slid as much as 1% after falling 3.8% last week.