Opening Bell: Bloodbath on the bourses; auto, banks, realty drag, whereas metals shine!

On Monday morning the markets fell sharply, as the Asian markets globally plunged by 3 per cent amidst weaker global cues.

On Monday morning the markets fell sharply, as the Asian markets globally plunged by 3 per cent amidst weaker global cues. The International Monetary Fund, on Saturday, said that the war between Russia and Ukraine will have a severe effect on the global economy as the commodities prices have already, coupled with the harm to human life and the unprecedented sanctions on Russia. 

The Brent crude oil price reached a new high today and is USD 128 per barrel as the markets see a heavy correction. Moreover, the continued selling by the FIIs in the equities market in the range of Rs 7631.02 crore is driving the market all the more bearish. The DIIs are compensating somewhat by buying in the range of Rs 4738.99 crore as per data on March 4, 2022. 

The Nasdaq is down by 1.6 per cent whereas the Asian markets are on the downhill and lower by almost 4 per cent. The Sensex is at 52694.81, down by 1,639 points or 3.02 per cent, whereas the Nifty 50 is at 15,785.40, down by 459.95 points or 2.83 per cent, officially losing the 16,000-level mark. 

BSE Midcap was trading at 21,875,62 down by 3.28 per cent and BSE Smallcap was at 25,473.53, down by 3.09 per cent. Similarly, Nifty Midcap 100 was at 26,647.65, down by 3.16 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 was at 9,488.55, down by 2.70 per cent. 

The top gainers on the frontline indices this morning were ONGC, Hindalco Industries, Coal India, and Tata Steel. 

Likewise, the top losers were Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Eicher Motors, Mahindra and Mahindra, Larsen and Toubro, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, and Axis Bank. 

On the BSE, 552 shares have advanced, 2,442 shares have declined and 120 shares are unchanged. Also, 153 stocks have hit their upper circuit and 276 stocks have hit their lower circuit.  

The top trending stocks on BSE, this morning are 3M India, Aavas Finance, Apollo Tyres, Ashok Leyland, Berger Paints, Britannia Industries, Cochin Shipyard, Dalmia Bharat, Eicher Motors, HDFC Bank, and Indigo Paints. 

All the sectoral indices were trading in the red territory, where Auto, Financial Services, Realty, Private and PSU Bank were down by more than 4 per cent, whereas BSE Metal was only one up by 1 per cent.