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Stock market extended losses for the second consecutive session on Monday on wide-spread selling amid Israel and Iran tensions.
The losses were weighed on investors’ risk appetite who will also closely track March quarter results at home.
Sensex was down 845.12 points, or 1.14 per cent, at 73,399.78, and the Nifty was down 246.90 points, or 1.10 per cent, at 22,272.50. Sensex opened with a cut of 930 points at its day’s low level of 73,315.16, against its previous close of 74,244.90 while the Nifty 50 opened 180 points lower at 22,339.05 against its previous close of 22,519.40.
In the sector-wise performance, only Nifty Oil & Gas ended higher with up 0.41 per cent growth.
Other key sectors on the losing side were Nifty Bank (down 1.63 per cent), PSU Bank (down 1.98 per cent) and Private Bank (down 1.66 per cent), Nifty Media (down 2.23 per cent), Financial Services (down 1.75 per cent), and IT (down 1.58 per cent).
Further, Nifty Metal index also emerged as a standout performer. At the start of the session, the Nifty Metal index experienced a decline of 2.3 per cent, reaching an intraday low of 8,744 points.
However, within the subsequent hours of trading, the index rebounded sharply, currently showing a gain of 0.95 per cent at 9,041 points. From the day’s low, the index has recovered by almost 3.40 per cent.
Among individual stocks, a volume spike of more than 300 per cent was seen in SAIL, Exide Industries and Mahanagar Gas. A long build-up was seen in ONGC, Indus Towers and Gujarat Gas, while a short build-up was seen in Coforge, Atul and Bandhan Bank.
The overall market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms stood at nearly Rs 394.7 lakh crore.
Investors lost nearly Rs 5 lakh crore in just one day as in the previous session, BSE-listed firms’ cumulative market capitalisation was nearly Rs 399.7 lakh crore.
The mid and smallcap indices suffered deeper losses. The BSE Midcap index fell 1.50 per cent while the Smallcap index declined 1.54 per cent.
Gold prices were trading with a positive bias on Monday as the Iran-Israel crisis fueled a rush into safe-haven assets.
Given the sharp uptrend in recent weeks, analysts expect some consolidation for the next few days as India Inc unveils their fourth quarter financials and voting for the Lok Sabha begins later in the week.
Markets in Asia-Pacific were on a downtrend this morning as investors weighed the impact of Iran’s attack on Israel over the weekend.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1 per cent while Australia’s S&P 200 index slipped 0.6 per cent, and South Korea’s Kospi slid over 1 per cent.
