Equities plunged on Monday in a broad-based selloff, with investors becoming increasingly nervous about trade wars.
The overall market breadth was a big negative, with three losers for every gainer. The all-round selling resulted in investors losing Rs 6.11 lakh crore, as the total market capitalisation on the BSE slumped to Rs 417.83 lakh crore, or $4.77 trillion. The volatility index, India VIX, rose 5.55% to 14.45.
After falling over 750 points, or about 1%, in intra-day trade, the Sensex closed at 77,311.80, down 548.39 points, or 0.70%. The broader Nifty fell over 240 points, or 1.03%, before closing at 23,381.60, down 178.35 points, or 0.76%.
A short-covering bounce in the last hour of trade helped erase some of the losses. The broader market indices were hit hard, underperforming the benchmarks by a wide margin. The BSE midcap index and BSE smallcap index declined by 2.33% and 2.72%, respectively.
Foreign portfolio investors continued their selling spree. They offloaded shares worth Rs 2,463.72 crore on Monday, while domestic institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 1,515.52 crore, as per provisional data from the exchanges.
On Sunday, US President Donald Trump announced a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports from all countries. The depreciating rupee also added to the market’s woes, as foreign investors moved money safe-haven dollar assets.
“The developments in the global markets and the uncertainty surrounding the tariffs are likely to be the main factors setting the market tone. Hence, one must stay abreast of developments,” said Osho Krishnan, senior analyst, technical and derivatives, at Angel One. He added that it would be wise to avoid making aggressive bets until there is a clearer understanding of the trend.
All the sectoral indices on the BSE and NSE ended in the red, with realty, metal and consumer durables being the top laggards, falling by up to 2.69%.
All 10 stocks in the Nifty realty index and all 15 stocks in the Nifty metal index declined. Sobha, Macrotech Developers (Lodha), Brigade Enterprises, DLF and Godrej Properties were the top losers in the realty sector, falling by up to 6.63%.
National Aluminium, SAIL, Vedanta, NMDC, Welcorp and Tata Steel were the top laggards in the metal sector, with declines of up to 4.88%.
Despite the current pessimistic market environment, foreign brokerage Morgan Stanley remains optimistic about India’s equities. In a recent note, it said the correction in the Indian stock market is mostly complete, and it should resume its outperformance relative to emerging market peers in the coming months, provided global cues do not negatively surprise.