Sensex, Nifty fall for 2nd day on selling in FMCG, metal shares

Mumbai, Jul 24 (PTI) Benchmark Sensex declined by nearly 300 points while Nifty closed below the 19,700 mark on Monday, extending their losses for a second straight session due to massive selling in heavyweight stocks following below-expectation quarterly results.

Foreign fund outflows and surging crude oil prices also weighed on equity markets even as traders were awaiting the US Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decision to be announced this week.
The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 299.48 points or 0.45 per cent to settle at 66,384.78. During the day, it touched the intra-day peak of 66,808.56 and hit the lowest level of 66,808.56.
The NSE Nifty fell by 72.65 points or 0.37 per cent to end at 19,672.35. The broader index moved between the range of 19,782.75 and 19,658.30.
Both the indices had settled more than 1 per cent lower in the previous session on Friday, snapping their six-day record-breaking rally.

Among Sensex stocks, hotels-to-FMCG conglomerate ITC dropped the most by 3.87 per cent after the company announced the demerger of its hotels business into a separate entity ITC Hotels Ltd.

Kotak Bank declined by 3.8 per cent, Tech Mahindra by 2.8 per cent and Reliance Industries by 1.92 per cent. JSW Steel, Tata Steel, HUL and Maruti were also among the losers.

On the other hand, IndusInd Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, PowerGrid and Bajaj Finserve gained up to 2.01 per cent. In all, 18 of Sensex stocks advanced while 12 declined.
According to Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, the market saw volatility as quarterly numbers announced by major IT and FMCG companies last week were below expectations.

“Sectorwise setbacks were experienced in IT and FMCG, unveiling weak demand and high input costs. Banks are mixed while pharma stocks are withholding the volatility in anticipation of better demand from developed economies, reduction in US pricing issues and expansion in operating margins.

“Investors are also watchful of the upcoming FOMC meeting, addressing rate hike and quantitative tightening measures, which could have an implication on FIIs inflows,” Nair said.

Broader market indices resilience and ended almost flat to marginally higher, Ajit Mishra, SVP – Technical Research, Religare Broking Ltd said.

BSE Midcap went up by 0.30 per cent to 29,634.85 while BSE Smallcap index inched up 25.37 points or 0.07 per cent to 34,172.03 points.

Among sectoral indices, BSE FMCG fell the most by 1.74 per cent, followed by metal (0.62 per cent), energy (0.58 per cent) and oil & gas (0.56 per cent).

Elsewhere in Asia, equity markets were mixed with Nikkei gaining 1.23 per cent, while Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite declined by 2.13 per cent and 0.11 per cent, respectively.

Europe markets were also trading mixed. German benchmark DAX was up 0.08 per cent while London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.06 per cent. The CAC 40 of France was off 0.18 per cent.

The US markets ended higher on Friday with S&P 500 gaining 0.03 per cent.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.73 per cent higher at USD 81.66 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were sellers on Friday as they offloaded equities worth Rs 1,998.77 crore, according to exchange data.