Nervous start to the New Year on D-Street

Investors lose close to ₹6 lakh crore amid a broad-based decline across stock indices; Sensex, Nifty recover after hitting four-month lows, but close under 79,000 and 24,000 points, respectively

In a turbulent beginning to the new Samvat, India’s benchmark stock indices tumbled through Monday to hit a four-month nadir amid a broadbased selloff as foreign investors continued to hit the exit button after pulling out a record ₹94,000 crore from Indian stocks in October.

While the S&P BSE Sensex fell 1,480 points in intraday trading to 78,232.60 points or 1.9% down, the NSE’s Nifty-50 intraday low slipped 2.1% or 500 points. The two indices recovered by the end of the trading session, yet the Senex closed 1.2% down at 78,782 points, the lowest level since August 6. The Nifty witnessed a steeper loss of 1.3%, to record its worst close since October 3 at under 24,000 points.

With a multitude of factors at play, including the muted second quarter results of Indian firms, nerves around the US presidential election outcomes and the prospects of another rate cut by the US Federal Reserve this week, net selling by foreign portfolio investors stood at ₹4,330 crore on Monday. Domestic institutional investors were net buyers, bringing in ₹2,936 crore.

The Sensex stocks that lost the most ground, included Adani Ports (3.23%), Reliance (2.77%), Sun Pharma (2.68%), NTPC (2.59%), Bajaj Finserv (2.44%) and Tata Motors (2.31%). But the selling spree was wider with the BSE’s Midcap and SmallCap indices declining 1.3% and 1.7%, respectively.

“All the sectoral Indices closed in the red. Amongst them, Nifty Reality, Oil and Gas and Media fell the most,” said Nandish Shah, HDFC Securities’ senior derivative and technical research analyst.

A staggering 2,737 out of 3,932 stocks traded, had fallen, pointed out Vikram Kasat, head of advisory PL Capital, Prabhudas Lilladher, terming this a sign of growing caution among investors, particularly as disappointing earnings forecasts for major companies raise concerns over slowing growth. This was

exacerbated by uncertainties around Tuesday’s US Presidential polls.

Published - November 04, 2024 08:20 pm IST