Share Market Today: The two key equity benchmark indices, Sensex and Nifty, on Monday again closed in the red because of unabated foreign fund outflows and selling in IT stocks amid weak global cues. The BSE Sensex shed 241 points to end at 77,339. On the other hand, the NSE Nifty50 settled at 23,453, down 79 points.
On the 30-share Sensex platform, TCS, Infosys, NTPC, TechM, HCLTech, Axis Bank emerged losers. On the flip side, Tata Steel, HUL, M&M, Nestle, SBI, Adani Ports were among the gainers.
The fear index, India VIX, which gauges the volatility in the markets, closed higher by 2.65 per cent at 15.17 levels.
In broader markets, the Nifty Smallcap100 index dropped 0.53 per cent, while the Nifty Midcap100 settled flat.
Among the sectoral indices, the Nifty IT index suffered the steepest decline, dropping over 2 per cent. Energy and Healthcare also ended lower, each losing nearly 1 per cent. On the upside, the Nifty Metals index emerged as the top gainer but trimmed its advance to 2 per cent. Meanwhile, Nifty Auto, Nifty FMCG, and Nifty Bank recorded modest gains of 0.3 per cent to 0.7 per cent each.
Equity markets were closed on Friday for Guru Nanak Jayanti. In the previous session on Thursday, the BSE benchmark Sensex dropped 110 points to settle at 77,580, while the NSE Nifty50 declined by 26 points to 23,532.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 1,849.87 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data. With this sell-off, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) have recorded a total outflow of Rs 15,827 crore in 2024 so far.
"Consolidation continued in the market; a slowdown in earnings growth and a weak rupee due to inflation impacted the sentiment. IT stocks reacted negatively today due to a reduced expectation of a Fed rate cut in December, which may pose a delay in spending in the BFSI segment," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services, said.
In Asian markets, Seoul and Hong Kong settled higher while Tokyo and Shanghai ended lower. European markets were trading in the negative territory. The US markets ended lower on Friday.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.49 per cent to $71.39 a barrel.
The rupee recovered from its all-time low level and settled with a gain of 6 paise at 84.40 (provisional) against the US dollar on Monday, backed by a retreating American currency.
Forex traders said the recovery in the local unit was capped by the unabated withdrawal of foreign funds amid lacklustre sentiment in the domestic equity markets as well as an upward movement in crude oil prices.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 84.42 and touched the intra-day high of 84.37 against the greenback during the session. It finally settled at 84.40 (provisional) against the dollar, up 6 paise from its previous close.
On Thursday, the rupee fell 7 paise to settle at its all-time low of 84.46 against the US dollar.
