Indian markets commenced this week's trading session on a negative note led by a broad-based selloff across sectoral indices. In the opening bell of Monday, Sensex has slumped to an intraday low of 49,545.93 and Nifty 50 tumbled to the day's low of 14,736.60. The focus this week will be highly on RBI's interest rate decision, macroeconomic data, Covid-19 trends and global cues movement.
At around 09.50 am, Sensex was trading at 49,614.42 down by 415.41 points or 0.83%. Nifty 50 was performing at 14,761.70 lower by 105.65 points or 0.71%.
On Sensex, heavyweight IT stocks rallied the most.
Infosys was the top gainer soaring nearly 3% followed by HCL Tech strengthening by 2% and TCS surging by at least 1.2%. Other stocks like Tech Mahindra, Ultratech Cement, Bharti Airtel and HUL climbed between 0.4-1%.
However, banking and financial stocks weighed down on Sensex the most.
Bajaj Finance was the top underperformer tumbling by nearly 4% followed by IndusInd Bank slipping by 3.4%. Axis Bank dipped by nearly 3%, while SBI and Bajaj Auto dived by 2.5% and 2.4% respectively.
Stocks like HDFC, ICICI Bank and Bajaj Finserv plunged by 2.3% each. While HDFC Bank, M&M, ONGC and L&T dropped nearly 2% each.
In terms of sectoral indices basis, on Sensex, the Bankex index plummeted more than 600 points. On the contrary, the IT index jumped by 373 points.
The rapid sharp rise in coronavirus cases since mid-March has brought back the spectre of lockdown across India. Despite positive global cues, the second wave of Covid-19 in the country has become a dampener in markets sentiments as states grapple with partial lockdowns.
Furthermore, investors focus has also shifted to RBI's first monetary policy for fiscal year FY22, which is set to be announced on April 07. The six-member monetary policy committee including RBI governor Shaktikanta Das will begin their 3-day policy meeting starting today.