The markets were dragged by energy stocks such as Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum
The BSE Sensex shed 252 points to close at 32,923 on Monday dragged down by banking, metal, energy and IT shares. With that, the 30-scrip BSE benchmark index marked a closing below the 33,000 mark for the first time in over 14 weeks. The National Stock Exchange benchmark index Nifty settled at 10,094. 39 stocks on the 50-scrip Nifty ended the day in the negative zone. HCL Tech, Tata Steel, BPCL, IOCL and Tech Mahindra - finishing between 3.7 per cent and 4.7 per cent lower - were among the top losers on the Nifty 50.
Here are five things to know about Monday's trading session:
- The NSE Nifty closed 0.99 per cent lower at 10,094, its lowest closing level since December 6.
- The Nifty Bank finished Monday's session 1 per cent lower. Bank of Baroda settled 7.3 per cent lower.
- "When you look at the data, it's relentless selling by foreign investors. Hedge funds are shorting the PSU banks. PSU banks' valuations are high and their earnings growth look muted," Sunil Sharma, chief investment officer at Sanctum Wealth Management, told news agency Reuters.
- A sharply widened current account deficit too weighed on investors' mood.
- The current account deficit rose to 2 per cent of GDP at $13.5 billion in the December quarter, up from $8 billion or 1.4 per cent in the year-ago period, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showed on Friday.
- Metal stocks fell, with the Nifty Metal finishing 2.7 per cent lower.
- NMDC closed 6.7 per cent lower, Jindal Steel Hissar down 6 per cent, SAIL 5.4 per cent and Tata Steel 4.2 per cent.
- The Nifty IT also closed 2.2 per cent lower.
- Among IT stocks, HCL Tech and Tech Mahindra fell around 4 per cent, and Wipro closed 2.4 per cent lower. Infosys settled 2.1 per cent down.
- Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold equities worth a net Rs. 150.46 crore on Friday, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold shares worth Rs. 770.53 crore, provisional data showed.
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