Sensex sheds 175 points on profit-taking, weak Asian cues

The Sensex, which opened at 23,850.41 points, traded at 23,471.59 points (at 2.30 p.m.) – down 317.20 points, or 1.33 percent from the previous day’s close at 23,788.79 points. The German DAX and France’s CAC40 were down 0.88 pc and 0.61 pc following a fresh drop in crude oil prices.

Caution-selling, combined with profit-booking and negative global indices, dragged the Indian equity markets lower on Tuesday.

At 9:25 am, the 30-share index was trading at 23,702, down 86.57 points, while broad-based 50-share index was quoting 7,209, down 25.30 points. This was the second session when the Sensex (down 1.25 per cent) fell more than the BSE midcap index (down 1.47 per cent) and smallcap index (down 1.25 per cent).

Investors are looking ahead to the parliament session of the federal budget and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ability to pass laws after key legislation, including a bill to introduce a nationwide sales tax, were blocked by opposition parties in previous sessions.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) net sold shares worth Rs 656.93 crore yesterday, provisional data showed. On Monday, US crude rose back above $30 a barrel and European benchmark Brent climbed well over $34 on hopes that the discussions to freeze output would lead to concrete action. Selling in banking, FMCG and capital goods stocks caused the maximum damage to the index performance. SBI, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank fell by up to 3.94 per cent. NTPC too ended 3.04 per cent down despite the institutional investor portion of its 5 per cent stake sale getting oversubscribed within two hours of opening of the trade.

In the Asian region, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was trading lower by 0.62 per cent and Shanghai Composite Index was down 1.26 per cent in early trade.

Oil retailer stocks like Bharat Petroleum Corp, Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Indian Oil Corp fell between 2 and 3 per cent amid concerns that government may impose Customs duty on crude oil imports in the Budget.