Sensex Declines 200 Points To 60,286; Nifty 50 Settles Near 17,700

Sensex declined by by 220.86 points to settle at 60,286.04 on Tuesday. Nifty 50 settled at 17,721.50.

Sensex saw 76.15 points rise to 60,583.05 points in early trade on Tuesday and Nifty 50 gained 29.20 points to 17,793.80 points.

Meanwhile, Rupee gained 5 paise to close at 82.71 (provisional) against US dollar.

Sensex opened at 60,511.32, while Nifty 50 started with 17,790.10 on Tuesday.

Most sectors ended in the red with minor gains in capital goods, realty and private banking sectors.

“Sentiments in the domestic market were hammered by bears that dominated the US market post the release of strong jobs data. Global markets are currently driven by central bank policies and the surge in bond yields in expectation of more rate actions. A recovery was seen in the second half of the day as US futures inched higher as investors await Powell’s speech,” Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services told Moneycontrol.

Moreover, Sensex and Nifty declined by more than half a per cent at close on Monday due to selling in IT, power and metal shares triggered by a global equity meltdown on rate hike fears and FII outflows.

Snapping its five-day gaining streak, the BSE Sensex settled lower by 334.98 points or 0.55 per cent at 60,506.90. During the session, the index fell over 500 points to touch its intra-day low of 60,345.61.

The broader NSE Nifty dipped 89.45 points or 0.50 per cent to close at 17,764.60 as 34 of its stocks dropped.

“A strong job market in the United States pushed the global market lower on rate hike fears, as it offers the Fed more leeway in enacting stricter policy measures. This was in contrast to the recent rally in the global indices on the expectation that the economy is in its last phase of policy tightening.

“The RBI’s policy announcement on Wednesday will provide more colour on its future rate actions, which is expected to hike rate by 25bps,” news agency PTI quoted Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, as saying.

On Monday Tata Steel was the biggest loser in the Sensex pack, falling 2.08 per cent, followed by Kotak Bank, Infosys, ICICI Bank, M&M, Ultra Cement and Tata Motors.

On the other hand, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finance, PowerGrid and ITC were among the major winners.

State Bank of India closed marginally up 0.17 per cent after finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that banks and insurance companies are ‘not overexposed’ to any one company and assured that Indian markets are very well managed by its regulators.

In the broader market, the BSE midcap gauge rose 0.75 per cent and smallcap index gained 0.49 per cent.

Among sectoral indices, metal dipped 4 per cent, utilities fell 1.26 per cent, Power declined 1.01 per cent, IT (0.67 per cent) and tech (0.65 per cent).

Telecommunications, services, Capital Good, and Bankex were among the winners.

Foreign investors pulled out Rs 28,852 crore from Indian equities in January, making it the worst outflow in the last seven months, primarily due to the attractiveness of the Chinese markets.

With retail inflation showing signs of softening and the US Fed moderating the pace of increase in its benchmark interest rate, the Reserve Bank is likely to settle for a smaller 25 basis points repo rate hike in its forthcoming bi-monthly monetary policy due later this week.

(With PTI inputs)

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