)
Benchmark indices continued to trade over 1% lower, amid a sharp sell-off in Chinese markets, with oil shares leading the decline tracking further weakness in global crude oil prices.
At 14:22PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 284 points at 27,839 and the 50-share Nifty was down 84 points at 8,352.
In the broader market, BSE midcap and smallcap indices have underperformed their larger peers with losses of around 1.3% each. Market breadth in BSE is negative with almost two declines for every gainer.
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net buyers in Indian equities worth Rs 4,984.60 crore on Monday, as per provisional stock exchange data.
Buzzing Stocks
All of the 12 sectoral indices on BSE are in the red. BSE Power and Metal indices have weighed the most with losses more than 2% each followed by BSE Oil & Gas, Capital Goods and Consumer Durables indices which are down by 1.5% each.
BSE IT and Healthcare indices down by 0.1% each have posted marginal losses.
Sun Pharma has gained over 1.5% after the Competition Commission of India (CCI) approved the proposed merger between Sun Pharma and Ranbaxy, which will result in a combined entity with annual sales worth $4.3 billion, making it the fifth-largest generic drug maker globally.
Among financials, housing finance major, HDFC has gained close to 1% while its twin HDFC Bank has gained around 0.32%. Axis Bank and SBI have lost 1.5% and 2% each.
ICICI Bank has lost over 1%. Today, the country’s largest private sector bank imposed charges on its own customers for the use of its ATMs for more than five times in a month. SBI, HDFC Bank & Axis Bank have already introduces ATM use charges.
Oil and gas shares are under pressure after global crude oil prices fell to a five-year-low on concerns about supply glut. ONGC has lost more than 3%. Reliance and GAIL have lost around 1% each.
Bharti Airtel has lost more than 3%. On Monday, Supreme Court (SC) agreed to hear Department of Telecommunications’ plea challenging the restoration of 3G intra-circle roaming pacts by Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) which enables telecom companies, like Airtel and Vodafone to offer 3G services even in zones where they do not own 3G spectrums by signing pacts with each other. According to media reports, SC has issued notices to Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular.
Shares of metal companies are under pressure, falling by up to 5% on China slowdown fears. Sesa Sterlite, Tata Steel, Hindalco Industries, Steel Authority of India (SAIL), Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL) and JSW Steel are down 2-5%.
Meanwhile, domestic passenger car sales increased 9.52% to 1,56,445 units in November as compared with 1,42,849 units in the year-ago month.Motorcycle sales last month declined 3.05% to 8,53,254 units from 8,80,078 units a year earlier, according to data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).
Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki have lost around 1.3% each.
BHEL has lost more than 2%. The company was in news for commissioning a hydro power project in African country Rwanda.
Among other shares, SPML Infra has rallied 8% after the company said it has received new orders worth Rs 267 crore and also to raise funds worth Rs 75 crore through qualified institutional placements (QIP).
Global Markets
Chinese stocks were swamped by heavy profit booking. Last week, Chinese markets had surged around 9%. According to a Bloomberg report, a sharp sell-off in riskier debt spread to government notes and stocks after Chinese authorities disallowed the use of lower-rated bonds as collateral for some short-term loans. Shanghai Composite Index closed down 5.4%. Hong Kong shares too witnessed heavy selling and the Hang Seng index closed down by 2.4%.
Nikkei closed 0.7% down, snapping a seven-day winning streak and pulling away from 7-1/2-year highs as a rebound in the yen prompted investors to book recent gains in exporter shares.
Amid weak global cues, European markets have started the day on a weak note. FTSE 100, CAC 40 and DAX indices have lost more than 1% each.
