Market in bear grip: Sensex Drops 1,170 Pts

Mumbai: Equity benchmark Sensex plummeted 1,170 points on Monday, dragged by losses in Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finance and Kotak Bank.

The 30-share BSE index ended 1,170.12 points or 1.96 per cent lower at 58,465.89. Similarly, the NSE Nifty fell 348.25 points or 1.96 per cent to 17,416.55.

Among top losers, Reliance Industries (RIL) sank over 4 per cent, after the company shelved a proposed deal to sell a 20 per cent stake in its oil refinery and petrochemical business to Saudi Aramco for an asking of USD 15 billion.

Other laggards included Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, NTPC, SBI and Titan. On the other hand, Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints, PowerGrid and IndusInd Bank were the gainers.

“Finally the bears got their act together after a long wait as a series of events over the weekend gave them the upper hand with almost all the sectoral indices barring the metal index plunging, said S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP Securities.

The repealing of the agriculture laws had an impact on the PSU stocks while the O2C deal not going through left a 4.5 per cent cut on Reliance, he noted. Further, he said that even as IPO investors come to terms with the reality, the inflationary impact on demand across several sectors continues to worry the street.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Hong Kong ended with losses, while Tokyo, Shanghai and Seoul were positive. Stock exchanges in Europe were largely positive in mid-session deals.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude rose 0.34 per cent to USD 79.16 per barrel.

World shares mostly higher as lockdowns, inflation loom

Markets opened higher in Europe on Monday after a mixed day of trading in Asia.

A resurgence of coronavirus outbreaks has prompted some countries to look to stricter precautions to curb yet another wave of the pandemic.

Austria went into a nationwide lockdown early Monday in a desperate effort to contain spiralling infections. The country’s chancellor, Alexander Schallenberg, announced last week that Austria will introduce a vaccine mandate as of Feb 1.

Tens of thousands of people marched through Brussels on Sunday to protest reinforced COVID-19 restrictions imposed by the Belgian government. The World Health Organisation said last week that Europe was the hot spot of the pandemic right now, the only region in which COVID-19 deaths were rising.

Still, markets appeared to be off to a strong start for the week. Germany’s DAX edged 0.1% higher to 29,774.11 and the CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.3% to 7,130.80. Britain’s FTSE 100 picked up 0.4% to 7,251.02.

US futures also pointed to an upbeat start, with the contracts for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 both up 0.3%.

On Wall Street on Friday, the Nasdaq composite gained 0.4%, while the S&P 500 shed 0.1%. The Dow industrials fell 0.8%. The Russell 2000 index lost 0.9% to 2,343.16.

Investors are waiting to see if President Joe Biden decides to keep Jerome Powell at the Fed’s helm. Biden is expected to announce whom he will choose for the powerful economic position. Fed watchers expect Powell to be offered a 2nd term, though Lael Brainard, member of the Fed’s Board of Governors, is a leading alternative.