Mumbai. The local stock markets declined for the fifth consecutive trading session on Thursday and the BSE Sensex plunged by 617 points. The NSE Nifty also fell below 22,500 points. The market came down due to profit booking in durable consumer and select IT stocks amid settlement of monthly deals in the futures and options segment.
The 30-share Sensex closed at 73,885.60 points, down 617.30 points or 0.83 percent. Due to selling in the shares of major companies, the index had come down to a low of 73,668.73 points during trading. In the last five days, the Sensex has come down 1,532 points or 2 percent. The National Stock Exchange’s Nifty also closed at 22,488.65 points, down 216.05 points or 0.95 percent. In the last five days, the Nifty has fallen 479 points.
Both benchmark indices had reached an all-time high on May 23. Since then, investors booked profits amid uncertainty ahead of the results of the Lok Sabha elections on June 4. Since then, the Sensex and Nifty have fallen by about two percent in the last five trading sessions. They say that investors are taking a cautious stance before the announcement of the results of the general elections. The last phase of voting for the Lok Sabha elections is on June 1. The results will be announced on June 4.
Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services, said, “The domestic market is getting signals from the US market as bond yields are continuously rising due to the rapid rise in inflation. This is delaying the reduction in the policy rate of the central bank.” Nair said, “The indices representing more stocks (midcap and smallcap) are in a downtrend. Investors were less interested in maintaining short-term positions amid the ‘exit polls’ coming on Saturday….”
Among the Sensex stocks, Tata Steel, Titan, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, Nestle India, Tata Motors and JSW Steel were the major losers. On the other hand, the gainers include ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India and Kotak Mahindra Bank.
Investors have lost about Rs 10 lakh crore due to the fall in Sensex and Nifty in the last five trading sessions.
The BSE Midcap index fell 1.21 percent while the Smallcap fell 1.33 percent. In other Asian markets, South Korea’s Kospi, Japan’s Nikkei, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and China’s Shanghai Composite were in losses.
There was a bullish trend in early trade in major European markets, while US markets were in losses on Wednesday. According to stock market data, foreign institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 5,841.84 crore on Wednesday. Global oil benchmark Brent crude fell 0.41 percent to $ 83.19 per barrel.