Sensex, Nifty fall for 7th day on the trot on global equity losses

MUMBAI: Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty slid for a seventh straight session on Monday, logging their longest losing run in the past five months, following a bearish trend in global markets amid concerns over aggressive rate hikes by developed economies.

The BSE Sensex declined by 175.58 points or 0.30 per cent to close at a month's low of 59,288.35 with 17 of its shares posting losses. During the day, it tanked 526.29 points or 0.88 per cent to 58,937.64.

The NSE Nifty fell 73.10 points or 0.42 per cent to end at a four-month low of 17,392.70 as 33 of its stocks ended in the red.

Sensex and Nifty fell for a seventh straight session, matching the seven-session losing run in the last week of September last year. In the seven sessions, Sensex tanked 2,031 points or 3.4 per cent while Nifty shed 643 points or 4.1 per cent to close below the 17,400 level.

In seven days, the market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms eroded by Rs 10,36,307.34 crore to Rs 2,57,94,678.26 crore.

From the Sensex pack, Tata Steel, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, HCL Technologies, Larsen & Toubro, Bharti Airtel, Wipro and Bajaj Finance were the biggest laggards.

Power Grid, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and State Bank of India were among the gainers.

''Bears continued to wreak havoc in the domestic market as the latest data releases from the US heightened the existing worries of aggressive rate hikes. The personal consumption expenditure in the US, which is Fed’s key monitorable of inflation, increased in January, pressuring investors to stay away from equities markets,'' said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Pressure in IT, metal and auto majors kept the tone negative but resilience in the banking pack capped the damage, said Ajit Mishra, VP - Technical Research, Religare Broking Ltd. A fresh fall in the broader indices further deteriorated the sentiment.

''The pressure in banking and financial majors was weighing on the sentiment during the initial phase of correction and now it’s cascading to the other sectors as well. Besides, the fall in the US markets is adding to the pessimism,'' Mishra said.

The BSE smallcap gauge fell 1.28 per cent and midcap index declined 0.69 per cent.

Among the sectoral indices, teck declined 2 per cent, IT fell 1.96 per cent, commodities by 1.75 per cent, metal by 1.39 per cent, consumer discretionary by 0.95 per cent and capital goods by 0.95 per cent.

Financial services, bankex and realty were the gainers.

In Asian markets, South Korea, Japan, China and Hong Kong ended lower.

Equity markets in Europe were trading in the green. The US markets had ended sharply down on Friday.

International oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.35 per cent to USD 83.41 per barrel.

Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) offloaded shares worth Rs 1,470.34 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.

Foreign investors have turned cautious and pulled out Rs 2,313 crore from Indian equities so far this month.