CLOSING BELL Asian markets, including India, snapped their 2-day winning streak and ended lower on Monday as the Russia-Ukraine conflict failed to de-escalate despite several rounds of talks between the two nations.
The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex had opened about 160 points higher but it quickly erased gains to trade flat. However, the selling intensified in the second half of the session bogged down by financial, auto, and FMCG players.
The 30-pack index, eventually, ended 571 points lower at 57,292 levels. About 26 counters ended in the red on the index led by PowerGrid, Ultratech Cement, Asian Paints, HUL, HCL Tech, Kotak Bank, SBI, IndusInd Bank, Nestle, Bharti Airtel, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance, L&T, and M&M. All these stocks declined between 1.5 per cent and 3 per cent.
On the NSE, the Nifty50 slipped 169.45 points to shut shop at 17,118. It had hit an intra-day high of 17,353 and a low of 17,096.
Energy-linked stocks, including Coal India, Hindalco, UPL, Tata Steel, and NTPC, were among the top gainers today, rising upto 3.3 per cent. They were supported by HDFC Bank, Sun Pharma, Cipla, and Titan.
The trend in the broader market was mixed with the BSE MidCap index ending 0.7 per cent down while the BSE SmallCap index added 0.4 per cent. In comparison, the frontline indices fell 1 per cent.
Individually, shares of
Dodla Dairy surged 19 per cent to Rs 548 on the BSE in Monday's intra-day trade after the company announced acquisition of dairy products company Sri Krishna Milks Private Limited for a cash consideration of Rs 50 crore.
READ MORE Shares of
Greaves Cotton moved 6 per cent higher to Rs 187.50 on the BSE in Monday’s intra-day trade, having rallied 15 per cent in the past two trading days, on the back of heavy volumes after the company entered into a pact with Bounce Infinity to provide battery swapping stations for Greaves Electric Vehicles.
READ MORE On the flipside, shares of Kishore Biyani- led
Future Group companies continued to be under pressure on Monday. Most of the Future Group listed companies traded at their all-time lows after they informed exchanges that the Group has called for a meeting with their respective shareholders and creditors meetings on April 20 and 21 over approval of Rs 24,713-crore deal with Reliance Retail.
READ MORE Overall, sellers outnumbered buyers on the BSE with 1,561 stocks ending in the green as against 1,965 stocks that closed in the red.
Sectorally, only the Nifty Metal and Media indices ended in the green, inching up 1.3 per cent and 0.3 per cent, respectively. The top laggards were the Nifty FMCG index, down 2 per cent, and the Nifty PSU Bank index, down 1.5 per cent.
European stocks were little changed on Monday as pressure from the Russia-Ukraine war continues to weigh on global sentiment. The pan-European Stoxx 600 inched 0.2 per cent higher in early trade, with basic resources gaining 1.8 per cent while tech stocks slid 0.9per cent.
On Wall Street, though, futures linked to main indices were sharply higher. The Dow Jones Futures were up 0.3 per cent; S&P500 Futures added 0.8 per cent; and Nasdaq Futures rose nearly 2 per cent.
Earlier in Asia, South Korea's Kospi slipped 0.77 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng dipped 0.9 per cent, and China's CSI300 eased 0.2 per cent.
 "Sensex falls 571 pts, Nifty ends below 17,150; metals shine, FMCG bleed")
