Sensex falls 354 points, Nifty ends at 15,632; banks, metals drag

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Indian benchmark equity indices closed in the red on Tuesday tracking a negative trend in global markets. Sensex settled 354 points or 0.68% lower at 52,198 while the Nifty 50 declined 120 points or 0.76% at 15,632.

“Bears dominated D-street following overnight selling in global markets due to spread of the highly contagious Delta variant and fall in economic growth data. Sharp fall in crude price & US bond yields reflected the rising concern over fall in future growth. Vulnerability from premium valuations, upcoming FOMC meeting and selling by foreign investors exposed the Indian market. However, western markets attempted to recover from the sell-off which provided some comfort to the domestic market in between but selling continued,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Gainers & losers

Top gainers & losers on Sensex

Sectoral strand

Barring the Nifty FMCG index all other sectoral indices ended in the red. Nifty Realty, Nifty Metal indices lost the most plummeting over 2.3% in today’s trade. While Nifty Bank and Nifty Pharma slipped in the range of 1.30-1.90% and the Nifty Auto index was down 0.86%. Whereas the Nifty IT index closed with a marginal loss of 0.04%.

Broader market

The selloff in the broader market was much deeper compared to benchmark indices. The BSE MidCap index slipped 1.28% to 22,700, while the BSE SmallCap index settled at 26.001 losing 1.44%.

Bears overpowered bulls in today’s session as 1,492 shares declined compared to 458 stocks advancing whereas 319 scrips remained unchanged.

Global markets

European shares opened higher while Asian shares declined across the board on Tuesday, 20 July 2021, following an overnight tumble for stocks on Wall Street and concerns about the spread of the delta coronavirus variant. Markets in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore are closed on Tuesday for holidays.

On Tuesday, China kept unchanged its benchmark lending rate for corporate and household loans – the one-year Loan Prime Rate (LPR) held steady at 3.85% while the five-year LPR was also left at 4.65%.