Sensex logs 3rd straight fall; energy, financial stocks drag

Mumbai: Indian equities continued their downtrend for the third-straight session on Monday, with the benchmark Sensex sliding over 181 points due to fag-end selling mainly in financial and energy sector stocks. Investors remained cautious over liquidity concerns as well as mixed start of the corporate earnings season.
Besides, crude price going past USD 80 a barrel also dampened sentiments. Among 30-share Sensex pack, IndusInd Bank was the worst hit with 8.52 per cent fall, while Reliance Industries slipped 3.56 per cent.
The index after a gap up opening at 34,689.39 points advanced to a high of 34,748.69 points in early session. However, emergence of selling in the last one hour of trading, it slipped into the negative zone to hit a low of 34,082.76 before ending at 34,134.38, registering a fall of 181.25 points or 0.53 per cent.
The index had lost 847 points in the previous two sessions on liquidity concerns as well as weak global cues. Similarly, the NSE Nifty after shuttling between 10,408.65 and 10,224 points, ended 58.30 points, or 0.57 per cent, lower at 10,245.25.
“Despite a positive opening in global market, Nifty traded range-bound and ended on a negative note due to concerns on liquidity and interest rate. “Mid & small cap underperformed while mixed earnings from index heavy weights dragged investor’s sentiment.
There is a risk of earnings to downgrade in the future since Nifty50-index earnings growth is less than 10% in HIFY19, based on Q1FY19 review and Q2FY19 preview,” Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.
Brokers said sentiments remained weak on macro concerns such as prevailing liquidity crunch in the market despite the RBI’s measures to improve the situation in the market and rising crude prices.
Brent crude, the international benchmark, again went past the USD 80-mark to quote USD 80.14 per barrel Monday. Other Asian markets after initial weakness, swung into the black as the promise of more stimulus boosted Chinese stocks for a second session and helped offsetting geopolitical concerns over Saudi Arabia, Italy and Brexit.
Beijing has pledged a more proactive fiscal policy to shore up the world’s second-largest economy, where growth eased to its slowest pace since the global financial crisis. European stocks too were in a better shape in their early session. Selling was more pronounced in oil&gas, consumer durables, information technology, infrastructure, realty, capital goods and PSU stocks that dragged the indices into the negative zone.
Among Sensex constituents, IndusInd Bank was the worst hit, plunging 8.52 per cent, while Reliance Industries slipped 3.56 per cent.
Other laggards include Yes Bank, Asian Paint, Kotak Bank, ONGC, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, M&M, Wipro, TCS, PowerGrid, Infosys, SBI, Adani Ports, Sun Pharma, L&T and ITC Ltd, falling by up to 3.08 per cent. In contrast, ICICI Bank emerged as the top gainer by rising 3.84 per cent, followed by NTPC 1.94 per cent.
Stock of HDFC Bank surged 1.38 per cent after the private lender posted better-than-expected earnings. (PTI)