The Sensex and Nifty extended their fall in early trade after the RBI kept repo rate unchanged against expectations of a 25 bps hike. While the Sensex fell 195 points to 34181 level, the Nifty lost 51 points to 10,264. Top Sensex losers were Vedanta (7.74%), Tata Steel (3.26%) and Wipro (2.34%).
YES Bank (2.74%), ONGC (1.63%) and Coal India (1.50%) were the top Sensex gainers. BSE midcap and small cap indices fell 1.25% each to 13,828 and 13,663 level. Metal stocks led the losses with the BSE metal index falling 2.74% or 360 points to 12,787 level. The rupee opened 18 paise lower at 73.95 compared with Friday's close of 73.77. On Friday, the Indian currency breached the 74 mark for the first time ever and hit an all time low of 74.22 amid rising crude prices.
Meanwhile, foreign investors have withdrawn Rs 9,300 crore from the Indian capital market in the last four trading sessions on rupee crash and rise in crude oil prices. Stock of oil marketing companies rose after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on the weekend that the government would not go back on the decision of deregulation of oil prices. "Let me categorically assure all that there is no going back on deregulation of oil prices," finance minister Arun Jaitley said in a Facebook post on Saturday.
The BSE oil and gas index rose 2.90% or 352 points to 12,495 points. Stocks of HPCL, BPCL and IOC rose 9.18%, 4.33% and 6.10% on the BSE. Market breadth was negative with 765 stocks advancing against 1176 stocks falling on the BSE. On Friday, the Sensex closed 792.17 points, or 2.25%, down at 34,376.99, while the Nifty 50 fell 282.80 points, or 2.67%, to close at 10,316.45. In intraday trade, the Sensex plunged 967 points and the Nifty 50 dived 337 points after the Reserve Bank of India kept the repo rate unchanged at 6.50%.
Last week, the Sensex logged the biggest ever weekly decline, falling 5.11% or 1850 points and Nifty shedding 614 points or 5.62%. The Sensex has fallen over 4600 points in 25 sessions on weak rupee and rising crude oil prices. The Sensex and Nifty are down about 12% each from their August record highs of 38,989 and 11,760 levels.
Edited by Aseem Thapliyal