RIL, Bajaj Finance Drag Sensex Lower

The sharp cut in Brent crude is a macro positive for India, but CPI inflation for September coming worse-than-expected at 5.49% is a concern and the MPC will be forced to take this seriously and postpone the rate cut to 2025, said VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist, Geojit Financial Services

Mumbai: Benchmark Sensex closed lower by nearly 153 points on Tuesday due to selling in index major Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finance and HDFC Bank as weak quarterly results and spike in inflation dented investor sentiment.

Paring early gains, the BSE Sensex declined 152.93 points or 0.19 per cent to settle at 81,820.12. During the day, it fell by 337.48 points or 0.41 per cent to a low of 81,635.57. The NSE Nifty settled lower by 70.60 points or 0.28 per cent to 25,057.35 with 30 of its components closing down, 18 with gains and two unchanged. But the market capitalisation (mcap) of BSE-listed companies rose by Rs0.23 lakh crore to Rs4,63,86,457.50 crore (Rs463.86 lakh cr or $5.52 trn).

“The domestic market experienced a downturn, influenced by a mixed global trend and partial profit-booking. Although declining crude prices are beneficial for the domestic economy, they signal weakening global demand. Additionally, India’s CPI surged driven by food prices, which will delay expected rate cuts,” said Vinod Nair, head (research), Geojit Financial Services.

The BSE smallcap gauge jumped 1.05 per cent while BSE midcap index climbed 0.25 per cent.

“The sharp cut in Brent crude is a macro positive for India, but CPI inflation for September coming worse-than-expected at 5.49 per cent is a concern and the MPC will be forced to take this seriously and postpone the rate cut to 2025,” said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

Among the indices, metal tanked 1.56 per cent, auto declined 0.67 per cent, energy (0.39%), commodities (0.23%), IT (0.22%) and oil & gas (0.03%). Realty jumped 2.07 per cent, services (0.85%), industrials (0.69%), consumer durables (0.41%) and capital goods (0.41%).

From the 30 Sensex firms, Bajaj Finance, Reliance Industries, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Tech Mahindra, Tata Motors, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Maruti were the biggest laggards. Reliance Industries Ltd, India’s most valuable company, on Monday reported a 5 per cent fall in the July-September quarter net profit as weak oil refining and petrochemical business hurt operational performance.

ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints, Adani Ports, UltraTech Cement and HCL Technologies were among the gainers. IT services major HCL Technologies (HCLTech) reported a 10.51 per cent increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 4,235 crore in the July-September quarter and also raised the lower band of its growth guidance on the back of better-than-expected performance. Soaring vegetable prices pushed the retail inflation rate to a nine-month high of 5.49 per cent in September, according to government data released on Monday. Global oil benchmark Brent crude dropped 4.71 per cent to $73.81 a barrel.