Benchmark domestic equity indices today ended lower in line with global markets. The 30-share index at the Bombay Stock Exchange, Sensex, tanked 1049 points, or 1.36 percent, to close at 76,330. Similarly, Nifty-50 at the National Stock Exchange shed 345 points, or 1.47 percent, to settle at 23,086.
The broader market indices at BSE witnessed intense selling pressure. The Mid-Cap and the Small-Cap indices, both plummeted over 4.1 percent each.
An across-the-board sharp selloff in the Indian stock market sent over 500 stocks to their one-year low levels in intraday trade on the BSE on Monday, January 13, with investors losing nearly ₹13 lakh crore in a single session.
As many as 508 stocks, including Asian Paints, Tata Steel, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, Coal India, Hero MotoCorp, YES Bank, Indian Oil Corporation and Tube Investments of India, hit their 52-week lows in intraday trade on BSE.
LIC, MRF, ACC, Astral, Adani Wilmar, Bank of India, BHEL, Central Bank of India, Concor, GMR Airports, IRCTC, IDBI Bank, IDFC First Bank, LIC Housing Finance, NMDC, SAIL, UCO Bank, Union Bank and Sona BLW Precision Forgings were also among the stocks that hit their 52-week lows in intraday trade on the BSE.
Reasons why the markets are falling today…
Global markets trade lower
Asia markets were trading on a lower note on Monday following the fall in the US markets on Friday. The US markets fell after the jobs report dented the hopes of early interest rate cuts by the US Fed. South Korea’s Kospi slumped 1.21% to trade at 2,485. The Asia Dow was trading 1.15% lower at 3,676.11. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.14% to trade at 18,847. On Friday, the S&P 500 closed the session 1.54% lower at 5,827. The Nasdaq Composite dipped 1.63% to close the session at 19,161.63. The 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 696.75 points or 1.63% to close at 41,938.45.
High crude oil prices
WTI crude prices were trading at $77.97 up by 1.83%, while Brent crude prices were trading at $81.15 up by 1.74%, on Monday morning. “The sentiment could worsen all through the trading day as crude oil prices have hit over a 3-month high due to US sanctions on Russian oil exports,” said Prashanth Tapse, Senior Vice President of Research at Mehta Equities. Also, the rise oil in prices was driven by higher demand for energy due to colder weather in the northern hemisphere and expectations of policy support from China, said Mihika Sharma, Associate Economist at CareEdge Ratings.
Continued FII selling
Making the investors’ sentiment jittery, FIIs continued to sell in the Indian equity markets. So far, they have sold Rs 21,357.46 crore in January. During the last three months, FIIs were the net sellers of Rs 1,77,402.49 crore. The experts have added that the primary cause behind the continuous selling by foreign institutional investors is the consistent increase in the dollar index, which is above 109 now.