Market bleeds on election result scare

The BSE Sensitive index was at 35,082.29, down by 590.96 points or 1.66 per cent during early morning trade on Monday. Doubts about the ruling BJP party coming back to power in three states and negative global cues are weighing heavily on the market. 

Exit polls suggest that Congress might win the state assembly elections in Rajasthan, while Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh would be a close call between Congress and BJP. On the global front, the US indices Dow Jones and S&P 500 fell more than 2 per cent on Friday as the trade war continues with the US and China making little progress in settling the dispute and crude oil gaining after OPEC agrees to cut daily production by 1.20 million barrels.

All stocks of the BSE Sensex were trading in the red zone. The top losers were Reliance Industries and Adani Ports, which were down more than 3 per cent, while Coal India, Power Grid,  Asian Paint and Vedanta was down more than 2 per cent. The Nifty50 showed the same trend, with all its constituent stock trading in the red. Beside Adani Ports and Reliance, on Nifty Indiabulls Housing, Ultratech Cement, Bajaj Finance were top losers.

Sectorally, Realty, Media and Metal indices were the biggest losers and were down more than 2 per cent, followed by Finserv, FMCG and Auto down more than 1.50 per cent in the morning session. Broader indices were also facing the selling pressure, with Nifty Mid-cap and Small-cap down 2.32 and 2.22 per cent on Monday.