Sensex Plunges 821 Points: FII Selling, Weak Global Trends

Mumbai, Nov 12 (PTI) Benchmark BSE Sensex tumbled by nearly 821 points or more than 1 per cent and broader Nifty plunged below 23,900 level on Tuesday due to heavy selling in banking, power and auto shares and sluggish global trends.

The 30-share Sensex tumbled 820.97 points or 1.03 per cent to settle at 78,675.18 with 25 of its constituents ending lower and five higher. During the day, it plunged 948.31 points or 1.19 per cent to 78,547.84.

Falling for the fourth day running, the NSE Nifty tanked 257.85 points or 1.07 per cent to close at 23,883.45. As many as 46 Nifty stocks closed lower and four higher.

Investors' wealth eroded by Rs 5.29 lakh crore to Rs 437.24 lakh crore (USD 5.18 trillion).

From the 30-share Sensex pack, NTPC, Asian Paints, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, Tata Motors, JSW Steel, Maruti and Power Grid were among the major laggards.

On the other hand, Sun Pharma, Infosys and ICICI Bank were the gainers.

"FII-triggered selling pressure continued to impact the domestic market. The recent strengthening of the dollar, driven by aggressive ‘Trumponomics' is adding fears," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services said.

Foreign institutional investors offloaded equities worth Rs 2,306.88 crore on Monday, while domestic institutional investors infused Rs 2,026.63 crore in shares, according to exchange data.

"The markets remained under pressure, shedding over a per cent, extending the ongoing correction phase. Despite an initial uptick, Nifty witnessed sharp swings in the first half before selling pressure in heavyweight stocks shifted the momentum downward," Ajit Mishra – SVP, Research, Religare Broking Ltd, said.

Analysts said investors also turned cautious ahead of inflation and IIP data which were released after market hours.

Official data released on Tuesday showed retail inflation rose to 6.21 per cent in October from 5.49 per cent in the preceding month mainly due to higher food prices, breaching the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) upper tolerance level.

India's industrial production growth slowed down to 3.1 per cent in September from 6.4 per cent in September 2023.

The BSE smallcap gauge tanked 1.26 per cent and midcap index declined by 0.98 per cent.

Among sectoral indices, power slumped the most 2.79 per cent, followed by utilities (2.20 per cent), capital goods (2.14 per cent), auto (1.95 per cent), industrials (1.82 per cent) and metal (1.52 per cent).

Realty and Focused IT were the gainers.

A total of 2,742 stocks declined while 1,226 advanced and 93 remained unchanged on the BSE.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong settled in the negative territory. European equity markets were also trading in the red. Wall Street ended higher on Monday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.56 per cent to USD 72.23 a barrel.

After gyrating between highs and lows, the BSE benchmark eked out a marginal gain of 9.83 points or 0.01 per cent to settle at 79,496.15 on Monday. The Nifty dipped marginally by 6.90 points or 0.03 per cent to 24,141.30.