Indian equities continued to reel under selling pressure for a fourth straight session on Thursday as GST shortfall, financial sector woes and renewed concerns over global trade presented a cocktail of worries for investors.
Market participants also maintained a cautious stance awaiting the Reserve Bank’s monetary policy outcome due on Friday.
After opening on a negative note, the 30-share BSE Sensex swung between a high of 38,310.93 and a low of 37,957.56, before settling at 38,106.87, showing a decline of 198.54 points or 0.52%.
Likewise, the 50-share NSE Nifty closed down by 46.80 points or 0.41% at 11,313.10.
The benchmark indices — Sensex and Nifty — were pulled down mainly by losses in metal and banking stocks.
Globally, markets came under an immense pressure after the United States said it would impose new tariffs on European goods, triggering worries for the already global economy.
Besides, a series of negative headlines in the Indian banking and financial sector have been playing in the minds of investors, pulling the benchmark indices down for the past couple of sessions.
On the Sensex chart, Vedanta was the biggest loser with 4.66% decline. Other major laggards were were Tata Steel, IndusInd Bank, HDFC Bank, Kotak Bank, Axis Bank, HUL and Bharti Airtel, losing up to 3.36%.
On the other hand, Yes Bank surged about 33% on Thursday after five consecutive days of fall after the bank said its financials are strong, with the liquidity position well in excess of regulatory requirements.
Others top gainers were Tata Motors, ITC, HCL Tech PowerGrid, and M&M, gaining up to 6.16%.
The Sensex has lost 882.87 points, or 2.27%, in the past four sessions, while the Nifty has dropped 258.10 points, 2.24%.
Sectorally, metal was the worst hit with 3% fall, followed by basic materials (1.78%), finance (0.98%), banking (0.90%) and telecom (1.48%).
On the other hand, oil & gas emerged as the top gainer by rising 1.85 per cent, followed by realty (1.14%), energy (0.87%), consumer durables (0.48%), auto (0.38%) and FMCG (0.16%).
“Weak global economic data and under performance in banking stocks bought uncertainties to investors. Shortfall in GST collection may impact government’s ways and means to tackle fiscal path. While bond yield declined in expectation of further interest rate cut by RBI and government’s status quo on borrowing plan...,” said Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services.
The Indian rupee rose 20 paise to settle at 70.90 against the American currency on Thursday. Brent futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 0.28% to USD 57.53 per barrel. Asian markets were down amid concerns over the US opening a new front in its trade war.
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections dropped sharply to a 19-month low of Rs 91,916 crore in September, mirroring a widening slowdown in economy triggered by shrinking consumer demand.
A caution prevails among investors amid a deepening crisis at Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank (PMC) and fraud allegations against companies like Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd (IHFL). In further worries for the Indian economy, the eight core industries in August contracted to over three-and-a-half year low of 0.5 per cent, due to decline in output of coal, crude oil, natural gas, cement, and electricity.
