Indian stocks came under selling pressure on Monday as major earnings fell below expectations prompting traders to press the sell button on equities. Major losses were seen on Realty, Infrastructure, Banking and Textile shares.
The Nifty fell 35 points to end the day at 8,260, its day's low. Asian Paints, Yes Bank, Coal India, Bharti Airtel and HDFC were top losers on the index while BHEL, Vedanta, Bajaj Auto, Tata Steel and HCL Tech gained ground. The Nifty had an Advance-Decline Ratio of 23/27.
HDFC, Axis Bank and Dr. Reddy's were the three top traded shares on the National Stock Exchange. Profit booking was also seen as this is the last week of the monthly expiry of futures contracts due on Thursday. Earnings from Asian Paints, Bharti Airtel and Rallis India disappointed investors.
The broader markets, too, were under selling pressure with major indices such as the CNX 100, CNX 200 and CNX 500 slipping nearly 0.5 percent each. Mid cap and small cap benchmarks dropped as well. The sectoral space was awash with red as losses were seen on CNX Media, CNX PSU Bank and Bank Nifty benchmarks.
Mood was bearish on the Bombay Stock Exchange as well with the Sensex dipping 124 points, or 0.5 percent, to 27,346 points. Lupin, ONGC and ICICI dipped in trade while strong gains were seen on Hero Motor, Hindustan Unilever and GAIL. The Sensex had an
Bulls also surrendered control of the wider market with just 972 shares advancing compared with 1,730 that fell.
The trend was weak in the derivatives market as well during the last week of the monthly expiry of contracts. More than 105 futures fell compared with 57 that rose. Heavy losses were seen on Arvind, JSW Energy and Asian Paints futures.
GSFC, Kirloskar Industries and Orient Abrasives made it to the volume buzzers list on the NSE.
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