Sensex loses 311 points, tracking weak global cues; financial stocks drag

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], February 20 (ANI): The domestic markets made losses on Monday, tracking weak global cues. BSE IT and BSE Auto indices gained on Monday while BSE Financial Services index settled in the negative territory. Federal Reserve officials’ comments that they might have to remain hawkish for an extended period of time influenced investors and were somewhat negative for the equity markets.

BSE Sensex lost 311 points or 0.51 per cent and settled at 60,691.54 while NSE Nifty lost 99 points and closed at 17,844.60 on Monday. Some of the most active stocks that went up on Monday were Cera, Gokex, Allcargo, Sonata Software and Dishman Carbogen on BSE. Some of the laggards were Cipla, Primo, Shilpa Med and DB Realty on BSE. The worst performers were banks and financial services and energy stocks. Nifty Bank and Nifty PSU Bank ended down over 1 per cent while Nifty Oil & Gas declined 1.14 per cent.

In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei gained 19 points, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng surged 167 points while China’s Shanghai SE surged 66 points.

In US markets, Dow Jones surged 129 points, Nasdaq Composite lost 68.56 points, NYSE Composite was trading in green while S&P 500 declined 11 points on Monday.
In European markets, CAC 40 lost 17 points, Deutsche Borse lost 20 points, FTSE 100 went down 2 points as Asian markets closed on Monday.

Shares of Adani Enterprises went down 6.37 per cent to Rs 1,613 apiece on Monday while Adani Ports went up 0.24 per cent to Rs 580.05 apiece.

Adani Green lost 4.99 per cent to Rs 597.25 apiece, Adani Transmission lost 5 per cent to Rs 874.40 apiece on Monday. Adani Wilmar’s shares lost 2.38 per cent to Rs 427.80 apiece.

NSE on Monday said it would include Adani Wilmar and Adani Power in a few indices from March 31 onwards.

V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said, “In India, it appears that the period of sustained selling by FIIs is over and they have started buying on some days. The negative sentimental impact of the Adani issue appears to be behind us.

The likely hawkish stance from the Fed will restrain the rally in the US market and this will also keep the Indian market in a range, attracting selling at higher levels and buying at lower levels. Valuations of the leading banking names, large-cap IT and capital goods companies are reasonable now and may be accumulated on declines.”