Sensex drops 222 pts, Nifty in deep in red; 5 key pointers that moved Dalal Street

After trading in green over the last few days, the Indian benchmark indices namely Sensex and Nifty 50 have reversed the trend. At around 0957 hours, Sensex was trading at 36,124.89 below 145.18 points or 0.40%, whereas the Nifty was down 43.60 or 0.40% trading at 10,844.75. However, Sensex has crumbled lower by 222 points in few minutes of opening session. Such performance can be attributed to global peers that have also been negatively impacted, as investors show caution ahead of the US Federal Reserve policy announcement. On the other hand, the rupee appreciated against US benchmark dollar index at interbank forex market, due to drop witnessed in crude oil prices to a 14-month low. 

On today’s market, analysts at Standard Chartered said, “Indian markets are likely to open on lower on weak global cues. Investors are cautious ahead of two days US Fed meet that starts today. Nifty50 technical supports are placed at 10800 and 10750 while upside resistances are at 10950 and 11000 levels.”

Let’s have an understanding to what moved the markets today. Here’s a list of five key pointers. 

Large cap losers! 

Majority of large cap companies were losers today on Sensex with IT-giant Infosys taking the lead spot trading at Rs 680.50 per piece down by 1.95%, followed by Wipro at Rs 334.30 per piece below 1.62%, ONGC at Rs 146.70 per piece down 1.11%, Adani Ports at Rs 367.60 per piece down 1.05% and Yes Bank at Rs 179.50 per piece down by 0.88%. 

Other major stocks that tumbled were Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, HDFC, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, TCS, Coal India, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Axis Bank and ITC in the range of 0.12% to nearly 1%. 

Gainers! 

On Sensex, the gainers list involved very few stocks with Sun Pharma taking the lead by trading at Rs 426 per piece up by 1.30%, M&M at Rs 766.60 per piece higher by 1.07%, Larsen & Toubro at Rs 1418.90 per piece above 0.81%, Power Grid at Rs 193.80 per piece up 0.68% and  Bajaj Auto at Rs 2859.85 per piece up 0.67%. 

#ZBizHeadlines | #Mumbai पहुंचे प्रधानमंत्री @narendramodi , देखिए इस वक्त की सुर्खियां। pic.twitter.com/0KGjC4y7PI

— Zee Business (@ZeeBusiness) December 18, 2018

Selling in IT, Bank and oil stocks

These three segments were among major losers on Sensex with IT taking the lead. The S&P BSE Information Technology was trading at 14,461.85 down by 150.06 points or 1.03%. On the index losers were 8K Miles, Cyient, Mindtree, Infosys, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, NIIT Technology, Ramco Systsem and Aptech in the range of 5% to 1%. 

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE BANKEX was down by 124.75 points or 0.41% trading at 30,046.43. Losers list involved only private banks like HDFC Bank, IndusInd Bank, Yes Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Kotak Bank. It was only PNB, BOB, Federal Bank and SBI who gained on this index. 

On the other hand, the S&P BSE Oil & Gas sector plunged by 41.41 points or 0.30% trading at 13,550.84. Companies like ONGC, BPCL. OIL India, Gail India, Reliance Industries, Indraprastha Gas and Petronet were top losers.

Rupee! 

The Indian Rupee was trading 37 paise higher at 71.19 against the US dollar. The domestic currency started Tuesday’s trading session with 71.34 per dollar. This was due to slump in brent crude, the international benchmark, by 1.22% to 14-month low of USD 58.85 barrel.

Analysts at Phillip Capital said, “USDINR spot consolidated yesterday. This bias is expected to continue with hurdle around 72.6 levels.”

Global markets! 

According to a Reuters report,  Asian share markets slumped on Tuesday as heightened concerns about a slowing global economy sent Wall Street stocks skidding to their lowest levels in more than a year.

MSCI`s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shed 0.3 percent in mid-morning trade while Japan`s Nikkei tumbled 1.2 percent by the midday break.

Analysts at Sunidhi Institutional Research said, “U.S. stocks closed sharply lower Monday in a volatile session that saw the major benchmarks whipsawing between losses and modest gains in early trading, before investors began selling aggressively Monday afternoon into the close. The selloff helped drive all three major benchmarks deeper into correction territory, and it marked the worst performance month-to-date in December since 1931 for both the S&P and the Dow.”