Markets extends losses into 3rd day; Sensex falls 336 pts, Nifty below 18,200
Mumbai: Equity benchmarks buckled under selling pressure for the third session on the trot on Thursday as lacklustre corporate results, negative global cues and concerns over stretched valuations triggered an unwinding of risky bets.
Investors' wealth has tumbled by over Rs 8.47 lakh crore in three days of market fall, with equity benchmark Sensex closing below the 61,000-level on Thursday.
The 30-share BSE Sensex slumped 336.46 points or 0.55 per cent to finish at 60,923.50, after slipping below the 60,500-level intra-day.
Similarly, the NSE Nifty declined 88.50 points or 0.48 per cent to 18,178.10.
Asian Paints was the top loser in the Sensex pack, tanking 5.21 per cent, after the company reported a 29 per cent decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 605.17 crore for the September quarter on account of higher expenses, especially input costs.
Reliance Industries, Infosys, Dr Reddy's, Tata Steel, TCS and Bharti Airtel were among the other laggards, shedding up to 2.85 per cent.
On the other hand, Kotak Bank, HDFC, ICICI Bank, NTPC, SBI and Axis Bank were among the gainers, spurting as much as 6.51 per cent.
The market breadth was negative, with 21 of the 30 Sensex constituents closing in the red.
According to V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, domestic headwinds like high valuations have become unsustainable and rising commodity inflation will impact the margins of firms.
"Sustained selling by institutions — both DIIs and FIIs — indicates that smart money regards the market as overheated and overvalued," he noted.
Narendra Solanki, Head- Equity Research (Fundamental), Anand Rathi, said, "Indian markets opened in green but couldn't hold on to early gains and drifted lower mirroring Asian market peers which traded mostly in red as investors monitored and tracked China property woes."
Sectorally, BSE IT, teck, metal, telecom, energy, realty and basic materials fell up to 2.30 per cent, while bankex, finance, auto and industrials mustered gains.
