India’s Sensex and Nifty50 indexes ended Monday’s trading session with sharp losses, marking the fifth consecutive session with losses.
Financial, information technology, oil and gas, and consumer stocks were the largest drags on both headline indexes. Broader markets also fell, with the Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices losing 3.9 percent and 4.8 percent, respectively. The VIX volatility index rose 20.8 percent to 22.8. For indications, investors were looking for additional quarterly earnings from India Inc. as well as the conclusion of the Fed’s planned policy review coming this week.
Panic selling caused by uncertainty about the magnitude of a rate rise by the US Federal Reserve frightened the markets. Furthermore, geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine, a rising dollar index, and rising oil prices and bond yields exacerbated the situation.
Individual large-cap firms JSW Steel and Tata Steel fell 7% and 6.4%, respectively, while Bajaj Finance, Grasim, Hindalco, Wipro, Tech M, Titan, and Tata Consumer Products fell 5-6%.
In the broader market, the BSE MidCap index fell 3.8%, while the BSE SmallCap index fell 4.4%. TCI, Angel One, NIIT, PNB Gilts, Just Dial, and Affle India were the worst-affected equities in the latter sector, with losses of up to 13%.
The S&P BSE Sensex dropped more than 2,000 points intraday, hitting a low of 56,984. It did, however, make a tiny comeback in the last hour, finishing 1,546 points (2.6 percent) down at 57,491.5.
On the NSE, the Nifty50 finished at 17,149, down 468 points or 2.6 percent, with only two shares finishing higher on the index. It had dropped below 17,000 earlier today, hitting a low of 16,998.
