Bears attack! Bloodbath continues at Sensex & Nifty on Monday; know why!

On Monday, Sensex plunged by more than 900 points, down by around 2 per cent trading at 49,885.75 levels while Nifty tumbled by around 250 points or 1.66 per cent to be around 14,781.90 levels.   

Since today’s opening bell, the domestic equity markets slipped into the negative territory led by broad-based sell-off across equities and sectors. While banking and financial stocks dragged the indices lower, the IT stocks were seen attempting to restrict the downward fall.  

Additionally, mixed global cues and the rising Coronavirus cases in the country, leading to the reimposition of lockdowns in several parts of India further soured investors’ sentiments.   

Data points indicating rising retail inflation and contraction in India’s factory output nudged market participants to remain cautious. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) or Retail Inflation of India, rose to 5.03 per cent in February 2021, compared to 4.06 per cent in January 2021. Higher food prices are considered to be the cause of the rise. The Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) simply known as food inflation rose to 3.87 per cent in February 2021, compared to 1.96 per cent in January 2021. The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) indicating the industrial output of the country, contracted by 1.6 per cent in January 2021, as per the data released by Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI).  

Elevated crude oil prices and a rise in the benchmark bond yields also weighed on investors’ sentiments.