Sensex Today: Equity markets remained weak on Tuesday after hotter-than-expected services data for November spooked Wall Street investors overnight on Monday. A rebound in employment level, along with pick-up in service activity, fueled fears that the US Federal Reserve may stay on course regarding rate hikes.
Back home, nervousness ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) interest rate decision on Wednesday kept investors on the sidelines.
The S&P BSE Sensex fell 208 points, or 0.33 per cent, to end at 62,626, while the Nifty50 closed at 18,643, down 58 points or 0.31 per cent.
The indices were dragged by Tata Steel, BPCL, Dr Reddy’s Labs, Hindalco, UPL, Infosys, TCS, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, HCL Tech, Tech M, SBI, Hero Moto, and Maruti Suzuki. On the upside, Adani Enterprises, HUL, Bajaj Auto, Nestle India, PowerGrid, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance, HDFC, and RIL lent support.
The broader markets, too, fell in tandem with the benchmarks with the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices dropping 0.53 per cent and 0.32 per cent, respectively.
Among sectors, the Nifty IT index fell 1.5 per cent, while the Nifty PSU Bank index gained 1.2 per cent.
Rupee Back Below 82
Extending its weakness into second straight day, the domestic currency weakened below the 82 per US dollar mark on Tuesday. The rupee lost nearly 80 paise in the intra-day trade and hit a low of 82.64/$. It, eventually, closed at 82.62 as against Monday’s close of 81.80 per USD.
Mohit Nigam, Fund Manager & Head – PMS, Hem Securities, said: “Investors are waiting for the conclusion of the RBI Monetary Policy Committee meeting before making any significant movements. The conclusion of the conference will be made public on December 7. It is predicted that the Reserve Bank of India MPC would announce a rate rise of 35 basis points (bps). India’s foreign exchange reserves climbed for the third week in a row in the week ended November 25, hitting $550.14 billion. The country’s reserves were $547.25 billion during the week ending November 18. However, Indian equities managed to stage a comeback in yesterday’s session, helped along by a strong estimate on services activity.”
Global Cues
US stocks slumped overnight as a strong ISM services activity reading for November, at 56.5 per cent vs an estimate of 53.7 per cent, fueled fears that the US Fed may continue monetary tightening even amid risks of a large economic cost.
The Dow slipped 1.4 per cent, the S&P 500 1.79 per cent and the Nasdaq 1.93 per cent.
In Asia too, the Hang Seng index fell 0.48 per cent in early trade this morning. The Shanghai Composite in mainland China, and Strait times slipped up to 0.4 per cent. Nikkei held marginal gains.
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