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Nifty retreats 115 pts as profit-taking stalls relief rally

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Press Trust of India Mumbai
Last Updated : Feb 16 2016 | 7:22 PM IST
Markets succumbed to a fresh bout of profit-booking after a breathtaking overnight rally as the benchmark Nifty plunged over 115 points amid sluggish macro outlook even as global mood remained buoyant.
The spontaneous selling was indiscriminate as all sectoral indices bore the brunt of the intense sell-off.
Sentiment took a hit after country's exports shrank for the 14th straight month, down 13.6 per cent in January to USD 21 billion, due to fall in shipments of petroleum and engineering goods, although trade deficit showed improvement.
Banking stocks, particularly PSB counters, witnessed massive unwinding after country's biggest lender State Bank of India said bad loans are expected to surge in the March quarter too, impacting profits.
Despite a positive start, bourses suddenly turned highly volatile as speculators and retailers took money off the table as the undertone remained poor due to lacklustre corporate earnings and caution ahead of the Union Budget against the back drop of global slowdown fears.
The Nifty had surged 2.6 percent on Monday, its biggest single-day percentage gain in more than a year.

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Meanwhile, major Asian markets closed in positive territory for the second day, extending Monday's rally on the back of bullish comments from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi that more stimulus is coming to boost sluggish euro zone growth and inflation.
The 50-share Nifty opened firmly higher at 7,201.25 and moved between 7,204.65 and 7,037.70 before concluding at 7,048.25, revealing a fall of 114.70 points, or 1.60 per cent.
On the sectoral front, PSU Bank plunged 6.17 per cent, followed by media (3.95 per cent), realty (3.34 per cent), pharma (2.28 per cent), FMCG (2.09 per cent), auto (1.93 per cent), Nifty bank (1.93 per cent), metal (1.92 per cent), infra (1.81 per cent), energy (1.38 per cent) and IT (0.72 per cent).
Mid-cap and small-cap shares too crumbled over 2.47 per cent and 2.19 per cent, respectively.
Shares of oil marketing companies were in the limelight after crude prices rallied on hopes of a production cut, triggering sharp selling in counters.
Major index laggards were ITC, ICICI Bank, SBI, Tata Motors, L&T, Reliance, Infosys, Sun Pharma, Zee, Axis Bank, Idea, Lupin, M&M, Bank of Baroda, Asian Paints and Yes Bank.
However, Adani ports, NTPC, IndusInd Bank, Power Grid, Hero MotoCorp, Wipro and Cairn India largely withstood the fall.
Turnover in cash segment dropped to Rs 14,976.72 crore from Rs 18,107.19 crore yesterday.
A total of 8,359.64 lakh shares changed hands in 73,90,281 trades. The market capitalisation of NSE stood at Rs 85,38,593 crore.

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First Published: Feb 16 2016 | 7:22 PM IST

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