Delta-induced retreat continues on unabated selling

Equity indices wilted under selling pressure for the third session on the trot on Tuesday as the global market sell-off deepened on renewed concerns over the fast-spreading Delta variant of the coronavirus.

Banking and finance stocks were the biggest drags on the benchmarks, while a rebounding rupee and robust buying in select consumption counters capped the losses to some extent. The 30-share BSE Sensex tumbled 354.89 points or 0.68 per cent to close at 52,198.51. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty slumped 120.30 points or 0.76 per cent to 15,632.10. All BSE sectoral indices ended in the red, with realty, metal, power, telecom and utilities tumbling up to 2.41 per cent.

"Bears dominated D-street following overnight selling in global markets due to spread of the highly contagious Delta variant and fall in economic growth data. Sharp fall in crude price and US bond yields reflected the rising concern over fall in future growth. Vulnerability from premium valuations, upcoming FOMC meeting and selling by foreign investors exposed the Indian market. However, western markets attempted to recover from the sell-off which provided some comfort to the domestic market in between but selling continued," said Vinod Nair, head of (research) at Geojit Financial Services.

Mathieu Racheter, head (equity strategy research) at Julius Baer, said global equities have experienced a major setback due to factors like surge in the Delta variant across the globe, rising inflation fears potentially leading to earlier-than-anticipated monetary tightening and weak credit growth in China, all of which are putting a dent on global growth expectations."

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market on Monday as they offloaded shares worth Rs 2,198.71 crore, as per exchange data.