Sensex ends on a negative note; down by 205 points

Indian equity benchmarks ended the volatile day of trade on a pessimistic note with losses of around half a per cent on Tuesday, following the bearish cues from the other Asian markets. Sensex and Nifty settled below their crucial 41,350 and 12,000 levels, respectively. Key indices opened in red and stayed in a negative terrain for the entire trading session, as traders remain concerned after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut its growth estimate for India to 4.8 per cent for 2019. IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath said growth in India decelerated steeply because of tension in the non-bank financial sector and weak rural income growth. It also expects the growth to be 5.8 per cent in 2020 and rise to 6.5 per cent in 2021.

Investors also remained on the sidelines with a private report that surging inflation and slowing growth are raising serious concerns about the future growth prospects of the economy. Markets continued their weak run in late deals, as the mood was further dampened with a survey report stating that a record level of pessimism has crept into the CEOs across the world regarding the worldwide economic growth. For the first time, more than half of the CEOs surveyed by global consultancy PwC said that they believe the rate of global GDP growth will decline. Pessimism over some heavyweight Q3 corporate results too weighed on the sentiment. However, a further fall in the domestic markets got restricted as traders found some solace with a UN report showing that India was among the top 10 recipients of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in 2019, attracting a total inflow of $49 billion, registering 16 per cent YoY increase.

BSE Sensex ended at 41,323.81, down by 205.10 points or 0.49 per cent after trading in a range of 41,301.63 and 41,532.59. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index. The broader indices ended mixed; BSE mid-cap index fell 0.21 per cent, while small-cap index was up by 0.02 per cent.

A few gaining sectoral indices on BSE were Telecom-up by 2.17 per cent, TECK-up by 0.11 per cent and Energy-up by 0.09 per cent, while Realty-down by 1.39 per cent, Power-down by 1.39 per cent, Metal-down by 1.37 per cent, Auto-down by 1.28 per cent and Utilities-down by 0.97 per cent were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Ultratech Cement-up by 0.50 per cent, Kotak Mahindra Bank-up by 0.46 per cent, Bharti Airtel-up by 0.41 per cent, HDFC-up by 0.37 per cent and IndusInd Bank-up by 0.36 per cent. On the flip side, Tata Steel-down by 3.01 per cent, Mahindra & Mahindra-down by 2.42 per cent, Maruti Suzuki-down by 2.10 per cent, Asian Paints-down by 2.07 per cent and Power Grid-down by 1.95 per cent.