Sensex drops 281 points, Nifty falls for 5th day

Benchmark Sensex dropped by 281 points, while the broader Nifty fell for the fifth straight session on Monday, due to selling in IT, FMCG, and telecom shares amid rising crude oil prices and persistent geopolitical tensions in West Asia.

The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 281.09 points, or 0.36 per cent, to settle at 77,728.16. During the day, it dropped 555.5 points, or 0.71 per cent, to 77,453.75.

Falling for the fifth consecutive day, the 50-share NSE Nifty declined 78.35 points, or 0.32 per cent, to end at 24,287.65, taking the losses to the fifth day. From the Sensex pack, Infosys, HCL Tech, Sun Pharma, Tata Consultancy Services, Tech Mahindra and ITC were among the biggest laggards.

Tata Steel, Axis Bank, Reliance Industries and Bharat Electronics were among the winners.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, climbed 1.11 per cent to USD 89.50 per barrel.

“Indian equity markets ended marginally lower on Monday, extending last week’s cautious tone as persistent uncertainty surrounding the US-Iran conflict and the absence of meaningful progress toward reopening the Strait of Hormuz kept investors on the sidelines,” Ponmudi R, CEO of Enrich Money, an online trading and wealth tech firm, said.

The BSE SmallCap Select index was up 0.38 per cent, while MidCap Select index dipped 0.11 per cent.

Among sectoral indices, IT dropped 1.74 per cent, followed by Focused IT (1.56 per cent), Telecommunication (1.16 per cent), Hospitals (0.94 per cent), FMCG (0.79 per cent), Healthcare (0.56 per cent), Services (0.48 per cent) and Consumer Durables (0.44 per cent).

Realty climbed 1.38 per cent, followed by Metal jumped 1.03 per cent, Capital Goods (0.78 per cent), Industrials (0.60 per cent) and Commodities (0.45 per cent).

Among the Tata Group stocks, TCS dropped 1.87 per cent, Tata Investment Corporation edged lower by 1.68 per cent, Trent declined 1.34 per cent, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles was down 1.09 per cent and Tata Chemicals fell 1.04 per cent on the BSE amid reports that the Tata Sons annual general meeting scheduled for August 18 may not take place after Sir Ratan Tata Trust, a key shareholder in the holding company of the Tata Group, was unable to nominate a representative due to a regulatory restriction imposed by Maharashtra’s Charity Commissioner.

Also, Tata Consumer Products lost 0.46 per cent, Tata Power dipped 0.44 per cent, Tata Communications skidded 0.40 per cent and Tata Elxsi slipped 0.13 per cent.

In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei 225, Shanghai’s SSE Composite index and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index ended higher. Equity markets in South Korea were closed due to a holiday.

Markets in Europe were trading on a mixed note. US markets ended lower on Friday.

“Indian equity markets extended their losing streak for a fifth consecutive session on Monday as elevated crude oil prices continued to weigh on investor sentiment despite a recovery from intraday lows,” Hariselvan Radhakrishnan, Founder & CEO of HST Wealth, a Research Analyst firm, said.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 508.12 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.

On Friday, the Sensex was down 70.71 points, or 0.09 per cent, to settle at 78,009.25. The Nifty dipped 29.85 points, or 0.12 per cent, to end at 24,366.