Sensex Plummets By 610 Points, Nifty Ends The Day Below 19,550, TechM Drops By 4%, And Quick Heal Rises By 18%
As the October series F&O contracts reached their monthly expiration on Thursday, domestic equity markets ended the day substantially lower. After a brief bounce, the markets declined due to weak global sentiment. The Dalal Street mood was affected by the rise in US Treasury yields and the rise in crude oil prices.
BSE’s benchmark Sensex fell 610.37 points, or 0.92 percent, on the day to close at 65,508.32. To finish at 19,523.55, the NSE’s Nifty50 fell 192.90 points, or 0.98 percent. Broader markets also finished in the red as the BSE midcap index fell more than 1% and the BSE smallcap index lost roughly a third of its value. India VIX, a measure of fear, increased 11% to a level of 12.82.
After a little respite, markets returned to being bearish and lost around 1% on the day of the monthly expiry. After a flat start, Nifty slowly moved lower during the day before settling at 19,523.55 levels. According to Ajit Mishra, SVP – Technical Research at Religare Broking, the decline was widespread on a sectoral level, with IT and FMCG ranking among the top losers.
On Thursday, each sectoral index decreased. The Nifty media, auto, PSU bank, and consumer durable indexes all fell more than 1% each, while the Nifty IT and FMCG indices each fell more than 2%. Significant declines were also seen in the Nifty metal, pharmaceutical, healthcare, and oil & gas indices.
Tech Mahindra experienced a more than 4% decline in the Nifty50 index, and Asian Paints experienced a comparable decline. Mahindra & Mahindra, Wipro, and Divis Laboratories all experienced declines of 2% while LTIMindTree experienced a 3 percent decline. The other losers for the day included HDFC Life Insurance, Britannia Industries, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ITC, and Bajaj Finserv.
