Sensex closes below 39,000 mark

The benchmarks indices experienced downward pressure on the first trading day of the week as negative sentiments gripped the market on Monday. Metal stocks followed by private banks pulled down the indices the most.

Investor concerns around delayed monsoon and the ongoing trade friction between the US administration and the India government as well as rising crude oil prices fuelled the southward rally.

On Monday, the benchmark indices BSE Sensex closed at 38,960.79, down by 491.28 points or 1.25 per cent. Whereas Nifty closed at 11,672.15, a decrease of 151.15 points or 1.28 per cent. The heavyweights pushing the Sensex down were Reliance contributing negative 112.56 points, Axis Bank 40.78 points, L&T 36.11 points and HDFC Bank 30.91 points.

Sectorally, the Nifty Metal index lost the most and closed down by 2.87 per cent, followed by Nifty Auto down by 1.69 per cent and Nifty Media down by 1.56 per cent. The popular banking index Nifty Bank closed down at 30,273.25, dipping 341.10 points or 1.11 per cent. Nifty Realty and Pharma were also down by 1.34, 1.33 per cent, respectively.

Among the top losers on Nifty were Tata Steel, JSW Steel down by more than 4 per cent, while Vedanta was down by 3.36 per cent, Bharti Airtel and Axis Bank were down more than 2 per cent. On Sensex the top losers included Tata Motors and Reliance down 3.20 and 2.69 per cent, respectively.