Sensex falls 175 pts on rupee, crude woes
The BSE Sensex erased all early gains to end 175 points lower in choppy trade on Tuesday, posting its fourth fall in five sessions due to widespread selling in auto, consumer, realty, oil and gas and banking stocks, amid weakening rupee and boiling crude oil prices.
The Indian currency collapsed to a record low of 74.39 against US dollar on Tuesday, raising concerns on the macroeconomic front.
The 30-share Sensex opened higher at 34,651.82 points but slipped into the negative zone to hit a low of 34,233.50 before ending at 34,299.47, recording a fall of 174.91 points, or 0.51%.
Similarly, the NSE Nifty after shuttling between 10,397.60 and 10,279.35 points, ended 47 points, or 0.45%, lower at 10,301.05.
“Volatility continued in the market in spite of which shortterm investors are accumulating select beaten down stocks with an eye on upcoming quarter earnings,” said Vinod Nair, head of research, Geojit Financial Services. However, negative sentiments from global market on concerns over a slowing world economy led by lingering trade war between the US and China dragged the market, he added.
According to a Nomura report, the recent market fall has to a large extent corrected the excess. However, it is still difficult to call a bottom on the valuation and further downside cannot be ruled out.
Selling was more pronounced in consumer durables, auto, oil and gas, FMCG, realty, PSU and banking stocks that dragged the indices into the negative zone.
Among Sensex constituents, Tata Motors was the worst hit, plunging 13.40 per cent to end at multi-year low of Rs 184.25, after the company-owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) reported 12.3 per cent decline in global sales in September.
Other laggards include Asian Paints falling 3.95%, Maruti Suzuki 3.07%, HUL 2.73%, Bharti Airtel 2.29%, Bajaj Auto 1.85%, ITC 1.81%, RIL 1.58%, ICICI Bank 1.50%, M&M 1.36%, SBI 1.26%, NTPC 1.22%, Axis Bank 0.67% and HDFC Bank 0.17%.
MUMBAI: