Indian equity indices started the first day of the week in the negative terrain as the Bombay High Court ruling against Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on the RIL-RNRL gas deal sparked a major sell-off in the domestic equity markets. This apart, weak cues from the Asian and European markets also had negative impact on the markets.
The 30-share Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) lost 362.42 points, or 2.38%, to end the day at 14,875.52 points. The broader S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was down by 99.40 points, or 2.17%, to close the day at 4,484 points.
Surge in the stocks of ADAG (Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group) companies was seen after the ruling by the Bombay HC in favour of Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL). RNRL was up by 24.11% to close at Rs 108.35 and Reliance Power ended the day at Rs 200.50, up by 4.32%. While RIL was down by 7.48% or Rs 176.35 to close at Rs 2,180.45, Reliance Petroleum plunged by Rs 10.50% or 7.15% to end the day at Rs 136.45.
Anita Gandhi, head of institutional business at Arihant Capital Market, said: “Apart from the court ruling in the RIL-RNL gas deal, there was some weakness in the markets after 13 finance ministers from various countries gathered to discuss the economy crises, last week. The major issue discussed in the meeting was regarding the announcement of stimulus packages by several countries, as they thought that, further declaration of stimulus will lead to higher inflation, this also had major impact on the domestic bourses.”
Domestic markets started the day with negative gap, however some buying was witnessed in the markets, during the first half of the trade. But after the court ruling in the RIL-RNL gas deal, huge sell-off was witnessed in the oil & gas sectors, and markets closed the day in red. Foreign institutional investors and domestic institutional investors were net sellers on Monday. As per provisional figures provided by BSE, FII were net sellers at Rs 411.54 crores and DII sold stocks worth Rs 586.63 crores.
Barring FMCG, all the sectors in the BSE sectoral indices closed the day below the dotted line, with metal and oil & gas being the worst performer. The breadth of the market remained negative as out of 2,701 stocks traded on the BSE, only 767 advanced, 1,876 stocks declined while 58 remained unchanged.