Sensex slips 236 points, Nifty below 10,400; Tata Steel plunges 6%

NEW DELHI: India stock market continued to remain weak as benchmark equity indices BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty came off from their psychologically important 34,000 and 10,400 levels on Monday.


The 30-share Sensex retreated 236 points, or 0.69 per cent, to 33,774.66, while the 50-share Nifty index settled 73.90 points, or 0.71 per cent, down at 10,378.40.

CK Narayan, Founder, Chart Advise in a chat with ETNow said, “I think 10,300-mark once again in danger of breaking maybe tomorrow or day after. So until it is proved otherwise I want to stay on the side lines and not really call for a bottom.”

As many as 37 stocks in the Nifty index closed in red with Tata Steel falling as much as 5.91 per cent, followed by Dr Reddy’s Labs (down 2.65 per cent), Bajaj Auto (down 2.47 per cent) and HCL Technologies (down 2.47 per cent).

Tata Steel came under pressure after reports that it emerged as the leading bidder for Bhushan Power and Steel.

On the other hand, Bharti Infratel, YES Bank, Reliance Industries, Coal India and Axis Bank advanced between 0.70 per cent and 1.50 per cent.

Punjab National Bank (PNB) sank 8.32 per cent to Rs 115.10, extending recent losses triggered by the bank detecting over Rs 11,000-crore fraud at a single branch in Mumbai. PNB made the announcement before trading hours on February 14, 2018.

Shares of Kwality also hogged limelight after the company said its board at a meeting held Monday approved conversion of convertible warrants. The scrip settled 4.25 per cent up at Rs 88.30.

Among the sectoral indices on BSE, the BSE Metal and BSE Capital Goods index declined 1.60 per cent and 1.56 per cent, respectively. Other sectoral indices on the exchange also settled in red.

Nikhil Kamath, Co-Founder and Head of Trading, Zerodha said, “We seem to have decoupled from global cues and domestic markets are looking weaker than most of our peers at this point.” US’ Dow Jones Industrial Average on Friday settled 0.08 per cent up at 25,219.38.

Devang Mehta, Head – Equity Advisory, Centrum Wealth Management said, “There has been a sharp recovery in the global markets, but India has seen huge selling pressure on every rally due to the recent turn of events domestically, one after another. The much awaited resumption in earnings growth seems to be back. Going forward, economic growth and robust earnings momentum can help investors create huge wealth in the years to come. Investors should follow a bottom up approach to accumulate good quality businesses, which after this correction, are available at reasonable valuations and better price points.”