The country?s equity indices, after witnessing volatility throughout the trading session, closed lower on Tuesday, after investors booked profit and foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued their selling streak in the domestic markets.
The 30-share Sensex of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) lost 291.90 points, or 1.97%, to close at 14,493.84 points. The broader S&P CNX Nifty of National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed lower by 99.85 points, or 2.27%, to 4,291.10 points.
Deven Choksey, MD of KR Choksey Securities, said, “In the past few trading sessions, we have seen huge amount of money going out of the country and being invested in their own economies. Apart from that, I don’t think fundamentally anything has changed and there is anything to worry. However, once the Budget gets over, we might see more profit-booking in the markets.”
Domestic markets opened with a positive gap, following strong cues from the US markets. However, during intra-day trading markets lost ground and turned unstable. The benchmark indices continued to trade in the red and declined further due to sluggish infrastructure growth. Dealers in the markets added that ahead of the Budget next week, investors booked profits. “Most positives are already factored in our prices, so outcome of the Budget will not have impact on the markets,” added Choksey.
All the sectors in the BSE Sectoral indices closed the day in the red, of which realty, metal and power were the worst performers. An analyst from the leading broking house said, “The news that the rush shown by the corporates in raising money through qualified institutional placement (QIP) and additional equity sales would result in sucking up the liquidity in the market, which weighed more on the markets and took the southward route.”
As per provisional figures furnished by BSE, FIIs were net buyers at Rs 107.88 crore and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) also bought stocks worth Rs 197.98 crore. The breadth of the market remained weak as out of 2,677 stocks traded on BSE only 757 stocks advanced, 1,848 stocks declined while remaining 74 stocks remained unchanged. In Sensex 27 stocks closed the day in red while remaining three stocks ended the day with some gains.