New Delhi: With the phased implementation of unlockdowns, production in the country's eight core sectors has shown a slight improvement, contracting to 9.6 per cent in July as against -12.9 per cent that was witnessed in the month of June. This is the fifth consecutive month of contraction for the core industries, according to the government data that showed on Monday.

The data on these core eight sectors coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertiliser, steel, cement and electricity - comes at a time when the government is gradually easing restrictions that were imposed in March to curb the spread of Covid-19. The eight sectors collectively have a 40 per cent weightage on the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). "The production of 8 core sectors had expanded by 2.6 per cent in July 2019," the data showed.

As per the data, output of all other sectors showed contraction in July
except the fertiliser segment, which continued to grow for the third straight month in July. Interestingly, farm sector, however, had remained relatively unaffected by the national lockdown. "The output of steel, refinery products, cement, natural gas, coal, crude oil and electricity declined by 16.5 per cent, 13.9 per cent, 13.5 per cent, 10.2 per cent, 5.7 per cent, 4.9 per cent and 2.3 per cent, respectively," the data showed.

On the other hand, snapping its six-session winning run, the BSE benchmark Sensex plummeted 839 points on Monday as fresh India-China border tensions triggered a broad-based selloff in domestic equities. Similarly, the NSE Nifty tanked 260.10 points or 2.23 per cent to end at 11,387.50.