The benchmark BSE Sensex fell for the fourth straight session today by 102.15 points to 27,459.23 as realty and auto shares dropped on receding hopes of a rate cut by the Reserve Bank and mixed bag of corporate earnings.
After resuming in the positive zone, the BSE barometer gave up all of its gains as investors preferred to remain on the sideline ahead of the RBI’s policy review on August 4.
Brokerage houses including, Morgan Stanley, RBI and DBS say the apex bank will maintain status quo key lending rate. Gaurav Jain, Director at Hem Securities said, indices traded in a narrow range awaiting clue from the US Federal Reserve’s FOMC meet, which begins from today.
The gauge opened on a better note, but in noon trade it succumbed to selling pressure giving up initial gains to hit the day’s low of 27,416.39 on across-the-board losses.
It, finally settled 102.15 points or 0.37 per cent down at 27,459.23 — its weakest closing since June 19.
The index has lost 1,045.70 points in last four sessions on muted earnings by some blue-chips amid fears over stricter norms on participatory notes (PNs) and a Chinese stock rout.
The 50-share NSE Nifty, after touching the session’s high of 8,397.40 intra-day, succumbed to selling pressure at higher levels and settled the day lower by 24.00 points or 0.29 per cent at 8,337.00.
Of the 30—pack Sensex, 18 ended with losses.
Bucking the trend, shares of country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki rose 0.46 per cent to Rs 4,195.65 after it posted 56.49 per cent growth in its standalone net profit at Rs 1,192.92 crore in the first quarter of this fiscal.
The losers which contributed to the BSE fall included, Dr Reddy’s, Hero MotoCorp, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Airtel, Cipla, Tata Steel, Wipro, Coal India, GAIL, M&M, ONGC and Lupin.
Sector—wise, BSE realty index suffered the most by losing 2.72 per cent, followed by healthcare (0.87 pc), metal (0.73 pc), auto (0.69 pc), oil&gas (0.45 pc) and teck (0.42 pc).
In line with overall trends, the mid—cap index fell 0.18 per cent and small—cap index shed 0.17 per cent.
Meanwhile, Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 859.94 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.
A mixed closing was seen at other Asian markets. Shanghai witnessed another round of wild volatility, a day after its heaviest one—day fall in more than eight years.
Europe was in green in its early trade after some companies earnings beat estimates.
