The market woes continued to spill over for the fourth straight session as the benchmark BSE Sensex shrank 102 points to 27,459.23, its lowest closing in over a month, on heightened risk aversion due to poor earnings numbers and fuzzy overseas cues.
Investors are willing to wait for some directional leads ahead of the Fed meeting scheduled later for the day and RBI's upcoming policy meet next week.
The corporate earnings numbers so far have not inspired much investor confidence, as a result of which the risk appetite remained markedly low. The 30-share barometer today got off to a good start, but washed out out all its gains under selling pressure, before settling down 102.15 points, or 0.37 per cent, at 27,459.23, its weakest close since June 19.
In all, the index has now lost 1,045.70 points in the past four straight sessions on muted earnings by some blue-chips amid fears over tighter norms on participatory notes (PNs) and a Chinese stock correction.
The 50-share NSE Nifty too ended down 24 points, or 0.29 per cent, at 8,337. Stocks may remain volatile this week ahead of the expiry of July futures and options this Thursday. The losses mostly came from Dr Reddy's, Hero MotoCorp, HDFC and ICICI Bank. BHEl and NTPC finished higher though.
Sector-wise, realty bled the most (down 2.72 per cent) while healthcare, metal, auto, oil and gas and technology lost too. The mid-cap index too fell 0.18 per cent and small-cap 0.17 per cent. Earlier in the day, most Asian indices ended in the red. The Shanghai Composite index, which remained highly choppy a day after its biggest one-day fall in more than eight years, closed the day lower. However, European stocks were trading in the green.
US stocks fell on Monday after the Great Fall in Chinese stocks raised concerns that cooling in the world's number two economy could hurt China's trading partners.
“Indices traded in a narrow range awaiting the clue from US Fed meet, which begins from today. Mixed bag of corporate earnings also weighed on the sentiment. Continuing downfall in the commodities, along with negative cues from key commodity market China, also spooked sentiment,” said Gaurav Jain, Director, Hem Securities.
Of the 30-pack Sensex, 18 closed with the red code. The market breadth remained negative with 1,388 stocks ending in the negative territory, 1,363 advancing and 128 going steady. The total turnover firmed up to Rs3,317.70 crore, from Rs2,961.17 crore on Monday.