The BSE Sensex closed lower by 217.86 points, or 0.60%, at 36,323.77. The Sensex had shed 6.78 points in the previous session on Friday after scaling a life-time high of 36,740.07 intra-day. The Nifty 50 fell 80.05 points, or 0.74%, to close at 10,936.85. In intraday trade, the 50-share index touched a low of 10,926.25 and a high of 11,019.50.
All the sectoral indices on the BSE, except IT and tech, ended in negative territory, with metal, basic materials, pharma and healthcare losing over 3% followed by telecom, industrials, energy and consumer durables. IT and Teck gained 0.78% and 0.33%, respectively.
NTPC, Infosys, Housing Development Finance Corp, Tech Mahindra and Yes Bank were among the major gainers, whereas Tata Steel, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Tata Motors, Sun Pharmaceuticals and Bharti Airtel were among the top losers.
Meanwhile, foreign investors sold shares worth a net Rs1,104.65 crore on Friday, while local investors purchased shares worth Rs872 crore, provisional data showed.
Oil prices retreated below $71 a barrel as Saudi Arabia was said to offer extra crude to some customers, while the US reportedly considered tapping emergency supplies, to offset output losses around the world, reported Bloomberg. Futures in New York slid as much as 1% after falling 3.8% last week.
Meanwhile the rupee weakened against the US dollar yesterday, following mixed sentiment in Asian peers. The rupee was trading at 68.67 a dollar, down 0.20% from its Friday’s close of 68.53. It opened at 68.51 a dollar and touched a high and a low of 68.49 and 68.71, respectively.
The 10-year bond yield was trading at 7.84% compared to its previous close of 7.79%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
So far this year, the rupee lost 6.98%, while foreign institutional investors have sold $ 853.89mn in equity and $8.77bn in debt.
Asian currencies were trading mixed. South Korean won lost 0.507%, Indonesian rupiah 0.132% and Japanese yen lost 0.080%. However, Singapore dollar gained 0.235%, China Offshore 0.140%, Taiwan dollar 0.134%, Philippines peso 0.131%, China renminbi 0.097%, Malaysian ringgit 0.074% and Hong Kong dollar 0.001%.