Delhi polls, earnings weigh on as markets head for 7th day of decline

The BSE Sensex and Nifty continued their downward trend on Monday as the Delhi Election outcome and earnings weighed on sentiments. [caption id=“attachment_1999999” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption]The counting for the Delhi Election 2015 will be held tomorrow. However most of the exit polls have predicted a clean sweep for Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party. The Sensex which fell 1.59 percent last week was poised to close lower for the seventh straight session At 1:20 pm, the BSE Sensex was down a percent while the Nifty was trading lower by 0.9 percent. The Bank Nifty was trading in the red by 0.83 percent. Intra-day, Tata Steel fell by 5 percent, while state-owned gas utility GAIL India was down over 7 percent and shares of Apollo Tyres plunged 17 percent after weak Q3 earnings. Besides Tata Steel and GAIL the top Nifty losers included Bharti Airtel, Zee and BPCL. Bajaj Auto, ONGC, Dr Reddy, Asian Paints and Sun Pharma were the Nifty stocks trading in the green The broader markets also continued their decline with the S&P BSE Mid-cap Index down 0.6 percent and the Small-cap Index trailing by 0.61 percent. On the sectoral front, S&P BSE Metal index was the the loser followed by BSE Consumer Durables and BSE Auto sectors. BSE Health Care was the only sectoral index trading in the green.