Key indices pare early gains as China realty woes weigh
Fag-end recovery trims mid-session loss; Sensex, Nifty extend losses into 3rd session as the market turns overheated and overvalued; Asian Paints tumbles after Q2 show
image for illustrative purpose
Domestic Headwinds
- BSE index declins 336.46 pts to 60,923.50
- NSE Nifty falls 88.50 pts to 18,178.10
- Sensex lost 842.09 pts in 3 sessions Heavyweights RIL, Infy and TCS in red
- High valuations become unsustainable
- Rising commodity inflation to impact the margins
- FIIs &DIIs engaged in selling
- Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo ended on negative note
- Shanghai moved up
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.
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.
VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said: "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."
Narendra Solanki, head (equity research-fundamental), Anand Rathi, adds: "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."
