Equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty on Monday closed sharply lower, marking their fifth session of loss in the last six days, tracking sustained selloffs in global peers amid inflation worries.
Intraday, the BSE Sensex fell over 900 points but recovered more than half of its lost ground towards the fag-end of the session. The index finally closed lower by 365 points or 0.67 percent at 54,471.
Likewise, the NSE Nifty ended 109.40 points or 0.67 percent down at 16,302.
Both these indexes registered their second straight day of losses and also the fifth drop in the past six trading sessions.
Sensex heavyweight Reliance Industries slumped over 4 percent, emerging as the big-gest loser in the pack. Other major losers were Nestle, IndusInd Bank and Tata Steel.
On the other hand, PowerGrid, HCL Tech, Infosys, Maruti and Bajaj FinServ gained as much as 3.5 percent.
Of the Sensex constituents, 16 shares ended in the red.
IT shares gained after the rupee plunged to its life-time lows. The Indian currency ended at 77.50, down 60 paise against the US dollar.
When rupee weaknes it benefits exporters as they get more value for the goods and services they export in terms of dollar.
“Rupee traded very weak around 77.47, down more than 50 paise and weak by 0.65% mainly due to higher dollar, indicating FII’s aggressively exiting emerging markets,” Jateen Trivedi, Senior Research Analyst at LKP Securities, said.
Continuing their selling spree in the Indian capital markets, foreign institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 5,517 crore on Friday – one of the major factors behind the rupee’s slump against the US dollar.
Besides, Brent Crude Futures at elevated levels of above USD 100 a barrel continued to exert pressure on the rupee.
Elsewhere in Asia, bourses ended lower in absence of any positive developments. inflation worries and prolonged geopolitical tensions in Eastern Europe continued to roil global investor sentiments.
