New Delhi: India’s stock benchmarks plunged heavily on Monday, extending their fall into the third straight session amid sell-offs across all sectors. However, state-owned banks rose thanks to strong quarterly results. The benchmark BSE Sensex fell 1,024 points, or 1.75 percent, to close at 57,621, while the broader NSE Nifty fell 303 points, or 1.73 percent, to settle at 17,214.
Mid and small cap stocks ended in the negative zone as the Nifty Midcap 100 index fell 1.03 percent and small cap stocks fell 1.34 percent.
“Right now, sentiments are weak and that could affect Sensex further. Investors should not take any new positions for the time being until market sentiments stabilize. Banking, automotive, EV, pharma and IT sectors look attractive and could do well bounce from lower levels,” said Ravi Singh, head of research and vice president of Share India.
On a stock-specific front, Tata Consumer Products was the biggest laggard as the stock cracked 3.87 percent to Rs 705.40. L&T, HDFC Bank, Britannia and HDFC Life were also among the laggards.
Except for Nifty PSU Bank, 14 of the 15 sub-indices — compiled by the NSE — ended in the red.
PowerGrid, ONGC, Tata Steel, NTPC and SBI were among the winners on the NSE index.
On BSE, overall market size was weak as 1,412 stocks rose and 2,098 fell.
On the 30-share platform, HDFC Bank, L&T, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, Titan, Kotak Mahindra and HDFC suffered the most losses with a whopping 3.65 percent loss.
Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has postponed the meeting of the rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) by a day as Maharashtra declares a public holiday on February 7 to mourn the death of legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar of Bharat Ratna. †
The meeting now starts on February 8 and the outcome will be announced on February 10.
Also, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) took out a whopping Rs 6,834 crore from Indian markets in the first four trading sessions of February.
On the global front, Asian markets traded lower after strong US jobs data spiked bond yields and increased the risk of aggressive Federal Reserve tightening.