The market witnessed a huge sell off with the Sensex down 572 points or 1.59 per cent to settle at 35,312.13, while the Nifty 50 fell 181.75 points or 1.69 per cent to settle at 10,601.15. In broader market saw huge selling with the BSE Mid-Cap index fell 1.54 per cent and the small-cap index fell 1.36 per cent.

Among the sectoral indices on BSE, the Energy index (up 2.35 per cent), Auto (up 2.26 per cent) and Realty (up 2.26 per cent), underperformed the Sensex. The Power index (up 0.65 per cent), Utilities (up 0.87 per cent) and Metal (up 1.01 per cent), outperformed the Sensex. While, Reliance Industries lost 2.72 per cent to Rs 1,123.45. HDFC lost 1.56 per cent to Rs 1,942.40. And, Maruti Suzuki India (down 4.63 per cent), Tata Motors (down 4.02 per cent), Yes Bank (down 3.08 per cent), Adani Ports & SEZ (down 2.74 per cent) and Bharti Airtel (down 2.67 per cent), were the major Sensex losers.

Technical view

Mustafa Nadeem, CEO, Epic Research, said: “Bears take full control as 50 per cent retracement acts as a crucial resistance on the daily chart. This is a classic reversal pattern with a gap down we would see at such a crucial resistance. We can see it is a clear bullish trap that was observed at higher levels of 10,915 and 10,850 level, the Nifty has failed to breach for last few trading sessions. The options data suggest there was an aggressive writing we have seen at 10,900 and 10,800 strikes with call writers being aggressive. On the put side, we still believe writers are aggressive at 10,500 and 10,600. This imply that the range for the Nifty on the upside is at 10,900 and on the downside is placed at 10,500. Close below 10,500 would imply that we are going to lower levels of 10,300-10,150.“

Market view

Abhijeet Dey, senior fund manager–equities, BNP Paribas Mutual Fund, said: “The trading for the day began on a subdued note as the indices saw a gap-down opening on negative Asian stocks. Stocks extended initial losses in morning trade. Indices hovered near day’s low in afternoon trade. Frenzied selling in index pivotals pulled the indices lower and pushed them to finally close the day with losses of over 1.50 per cent. Investors are closely watching the meeting between the Opec and other oil-producers, later in the week. They also turned cautious in the run-up to the announcement of five state elections’ results next week.”