Sensex skids 184 points, Nifty goes below 9,100

Market gave a poor account of itself as the Sensex tumbled over 184 points on Monday to end at 29,237, with heavyweight Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) struggling in the wake of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) ban, which barred the company from equity derivatives trading for one year.

The general global weakness stemmed from investors' doubts about future policies of US president Donald Trump, who failed to push through his proposed health-care legislation, which cast shadow on stocks in India.

Logging the first fall in three sessions, the 30-share Sensex stayed in the negative zone throughout and went down by 184 points, or 0.6 per cent, to 29,237 after hitting a low of 29,163.5.

The 50-share Nifty slipped below 9,100 to touch a low of 9,024.6 before making a partial recovery to close 63 points or 0.7 per cent lower at 9,045.

Tata Steel was the top Sensex loser, skidding 3.15 per cent, followed by RIL (2.76 per cent) after Sebi imposed a one-year ban on the company from the equity derivatives space for alleged fraudulent trading.

The rally in the rupee sent information technology (IT) shares lower, which earn much of their revenue in dollars. HCL Technologies lost 1.8 per cent, Wipro 1.79 per cent, and Tech Mahindra 1.25 per cent.

The rupee hit a nearly one-and-a-half-year high to close at 65.04 against the dollar.

Stocks of drugmakers retreated, with Sun Pharma and Lupin ending lower by up to 1.76 per cent each.

"Global headwinds on account of Trump's failure on US health-care Bill have kept markets across the world under the selling mode, including India. The global market waned due to the concern over the future rollout of tax cuts and fiscal spending plan in the US," said Vinod Nair, head of research, Geojit Financial Services.

"Premium valuation and speculative trades as expiry nears will test investor's patience in the near term," Nair said. Meanwhile, the government tabled four Bills related to goods and services tax in Lok Sabha on Monday, ahead of the tax's proposed rollout from July 1.

Coal India ended 2.06 per cent down even as the state-owned miner announced its second interim dividend of Rs 1.15 per share for the current financial year.

Other major losers were Asian Paints, GAIL, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Adani Ports, Hero MotoCorp, and Tata Motors.

Broader markets, too, were in bearish mood. The mid-cap and small-cap indices closed lower.

Foreign institutional investors bought shares worth a net Rs 543 crore on Friday, going by provisional data.

In Asia, key indices turned lower. In Europe, most shares slipped. The BSE metal fell 2.6 per cent and a similar trend was seen in oil and gas, health care, and IT. 

Of the 30 shares on Sensex, 25 stocks ended lower and five gained. The market breadth remained negative as 1,630 shares ended lower; 1,158 closed higher while 231 remained steady.

The total turnover on BSE was Rs 8,810 crore, up from Rs 5,566.6 crore during the previous trading session.