Selling pressure drags the Sensex

Indian equity benchmarks sank in a sea of red on Monday, with losses of around a per cent, on the back of sustained selling across sectors. The markets opened at record peaks, tracking strong quarterly results by index heavyweights, such as, Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank. Traders also took some support from Union Road Transport & Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari’s statement that the goal of making India a $5 trillion economy by 2024 was difficult but not impossible! He added that it can be achieved by increasing domestic production and reducing dependence on imports. However, markets soon gave up all their early gains, as traders turned cautious with the Former Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg’s statement, in which he says, that the government's tax collection is likely to fall short of its estimate by Rs 2.5 lakh crore or 1.2 per cent of GDP in 2019-20, and also, called for scrapping of dividend distribution tax.

Markets extended their fall in the late-afternoon trade and traded near intraday low levels, amid a report stating that progress across major development schemes in India, including education, health and nutrition among others, remains constrained due to sub-optimal utilisation of available funds, especially at the district level.

Sentiments also dented by another private report stating that surging inflation and slowing growth are raising serious concerns about the future growth prospects of the economy and as a remedial measure, the government should resolve supply side hurdles and ensure more stringent governance norms. Adding to this, a private report stated that blocking Huawei from rolling out 5G technology may cause a loss of up to $63 billion in the GDP of top eight technology markets, and at least $4.7 billion in case of India, by 2035.

BSE Sensex ended at 41,528.91, down by 416.46 points or 0.99 per cent after trading in a range of 41,503.37 and 42,273.87. There were 9 stocks advancing, against 21 stocks declining on the index. The broader indices ended in red; the BSE mid-cap index fell 0.61 per cent, while small-cap index was down by 0.40 per cent.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom-up by 1.73 per cent, Realty-up by 0.49 per cent, Utilities-up by 0.49 per cent, Power-up by 0.38 per cent and FMCG-up by 0.07 per cent, while Energy-down by 2.65 per cent, Bankex-down by 1.65 per cent, Oil & Gas-down by 1.13 per cent, Metal-down by 1.01 per cent and PSU-down by 0.93 per cent were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Power Grid-up by 3.75 per cent, Bharti Airtel-up by 1.85 per cent, ITC-up by 0.85 per cent, Asian Paints-up by 0.82 per cent and ICICI Bank-up by 0.74 per cent. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank-down by 4.70 per cent, Reliance Industries-down by 3.08 per cent, ONGC-down by 2.39 per cent, TCS-down by 2.16 per cent and NTPC-down by 2.06 per cent.