The Indian equity benchmarks edged lower on Monday dragged down by losses in heavyweights like Infosys, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints and Tata Consultancy Services. The Sensex fell as much as 146 points to hit an intraday low of 60,675 and Nifty 50 index fell below its important psychological level of 18,100. However, the losses for the benchmarks were capped as the country’s second largest private lender ICICI Bank gained after its profit surpassed street estimates.
As of 9:39 am, the Sensex was down 12 points at 60,810 and Nifty 50 index declined 44 points to 18,071.
Meanwhile, Asian shares edged higher on Monday ahead of a week packed with major quarterly earnings announcements though news of trials of a property tax in China weighed on Hong Kong and mainland Chinese markets.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.26 per cent while Japan’s Nikkei lost 1 per cent on softer earnings by several local companies.
Chinese blue chips were flat, though an real estate index shed 3 per cent, while the Hong Kong benchmark gained 0.18 per cent despite a 2.6 per cent fall in an index of Hong Kong listed mainland property firms.
Back home, selling pressure was broad-based as fifteen of 19 sector gauges compiled by the BSE were trading lower led by the S&P BSE Realty index’s over 3 per cent fall. Basic Materials, Consumer Discretionary Goods & Services, FMCG, Healthcare, Industrials, IT, Telecom, Utilities, Auto and Consumer Durables indexes also fell over 1 per cent each.
On the other hand, BSE Bankex advanced 1.2 per cent. Oil & Gas and Energy shares were also witnessing buying interest.
Mid- and small-cap shares were underperforming their larger peers as S&P BSE MidCap index dropped 2 per cent and SmallCap index fell 2.1 per cent.
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