Sensex Falls 153 pts, RIL Drags After Weak Q2 Results

Mumbai, Oct 15 (PTI) 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.

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.

"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," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services, said.

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.

"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 V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

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.

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

Among the indices, metal tanked 1.56 per cent, auto declined 0.67 per cent, energy (0.39 per cent), commodities (0.23 per cent), IT (0.22 per cent) and oil & gas (0.03 per cent).

Realty jumped 2.07 per cent, services (0.85 per cent), industrials (0.69 per cent), consumer durables (0.41 per cent) and capital goods (0.41 per cent).

Global oil benchmark Brent crude dropped 4.71 per cent to USD 73.81 a barrel.

In Asian markets, Seoul and Tokyo settled in the positive territory while Shanghai and Hong Kong ended lower.

European markets were trading on a mixed note. The US markets ended higher on Monday.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 3,731.59 crore on Monday, according to exchange data. However, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth Rs 2,278.09 crore.