Sensex declines 141 points, Nifty falls 48 points; ONGC, ITC, Tata Steel among top losers

Mumbai: Stock market benchmark Sensex on Monday declined by 141 points after a volatile session, dragged down by profit-booking in select IT, banking, pharma and FMCG stocks mainly in the last hour of trade. The 30-share BSE Sensex settled at 37,531.98 points, down by 141.33 points or 0.38 percent as 24 of its components posted losses. The barometer oscillated between the day’s high of 37,919.47 and the low of 37,480.53. Broader NSE Nifty dropped by 48.35 points or 0.43 percent to close at 11,126.40 as leading IT, pharma, financials, and oil stocks retreated due to profit booking. As many as 32 of Nifty components declined.

#MarketAtClose | Market ends in the red for 6th straight day, #Nifty below 11,200 pic.twitter.com/TaELMFozoB

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) October 7, 2019

“Market traded range-bound as investors are expecting the downward revision in GDP estimate to mirror in second-quarter earnings as well. The core auto, banks and infra are already in subdued condition due to weak demand while stock-specific buying was seen in few blue chips in the light of good monsoon and advantages of tax cut,” Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services commented. Among the major NSE losers, oil retailer BPCL dropped more than 5 percent at close on reports that the government has cleared the way for its privatisation. Top laggards in the Sensex pack included ONGC, ITC, Tata Steel, M&M, Tata Motors, L&T, TCS, Sun Pharma, NTPC, IndusInd Bank and Tech Mahindra, falling up to 2.97 percent. [caption id=“attachment_4437105” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] Pharma major Glenmark tumbled more than 9 percent at the close after the US health regulator issued a warning letter to its manufacturing plant in Himachal Pradesh. Aurobindo Pharma dived more than 19 percent after reports that the US FDA has issued observations to one of its plants for violations of good manufacturing practices. The company clarified that the USFDA issues seven observations after an inspection but none of the observations is related to data integrity. Lupin dropped 2.69 percent, Cipla by 2.35 percent, and Sun Pharma dropped 1.57 percent. Defensive bet pharma stocks declined due to increasing US FDA observations while IT slid ahead of kick start of second-quarter earnings, an analyst said. Dewan Housing Finance Corp also dropped 7.52 percent after depository CDSL froze the shareholding of its promoters due to delay in the release of financial results. Bucking the trend, shares of Yes Bank rallied over 8 percent on prospects of fresh investments in the company. Axis Bank, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Finance also rose up to 2.53 percent on BSE. Market breadth was negative with 1,629 scrips closing with losses against 892 stocks ending in green. As many as 279 stocks hit their 52-week low while 332 stocks hit their lower circuits on BSE. Broader BSE midcap and smallcap indices too fell up to 0.75 percent. Sectorally, BSE healthcare, oil and gas, capital goods, basic materials, industrials, metal, realty, power, energy, IT, auto, FMCG and finance indices fell up to 2.43 percent. While BSE consumer durables, telecom and banking indices rose up to 1.06 percent. Weak cues from other Asian and European equities too weighed on investor sentiment, brokers said. Elsewhere in Asia, Kospi settled marginally higher, while Nikkei closed in the red. Markets in Shanghai and Hong Kong were closed for a holiday. Equities in Europe were trading lower in early sessions. Meanwhile, the rupee depreciated by 18 paise to 71.07 against the US dollar intra-day. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, advanced 0.41 percent to $58.61 per barrel.