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| Edited By: |Source: PTI |Updated: Mar 17, 2018, 02:00 AM IST
The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex today fell by over 110 points to settle below the 17,000-level, with metal and realty stocks taking a severe beating amid steep declines on LME and Dubai bourses.
Marketmen said with the rupee sliding against the US dollar, there is now capital outflows, which weighed against the investor sentiment. Besides, Gulf exchanges suffering sharp loses again added to the bearish sentiment.
Dubai' DFM index saw steep fall of 5.84 %, while Abu Dhabi's General Index was down 1.73 %even as Dubai World is is talking to its creditor today. There was large scale selling in metal segment after a fall in metal prices on London Metal Exchange (LME).
"Commodity prices were jacked up on rising value of the American currency in the overseas market, which dragged the metal stocks down," said Bonanza Portfolio assistant vice president Avinash Gupta.
Rupeee was trading significantly lower in the range of 46.58 against the US dollar during intra-day. A hectic drop of 3.07 %in heavyweight Reliance Industries after company's bonus shares hit the market for trading today mainly dragged the Sensex down.
"The market looked tired and as the European cues were down and mixed Asian cues kept Indian markets under pressure," added Gupta. However, major Asian indices displayed a firm trend on the back of encouraging US employment data.
After resuming higher, the 30-share barometer moved in a medium range before finishing the day at 16,983.14, netting a fall of 118.40 points or 0.69 %.
Market had regained the 17,000-level early last week after a rally sparked by India's stunning economic growth of 7.9 per cent in the second quarter. But it was mainly remained range-bound in the absence of global or domestic triggers for rest of the week.
With dollar on a revival against its major rivals in the overseas market amid speculation that US Fed may hike interest rates in the wake of surprising fall in the US jobless numbers.
"Right now one should be bullish on dollar and sell stocks. Pressure on market will be there in near term due to rising dollar," SMC Global Vice President Rajesh Jain said.
Besides metal and realty, sectoral indices of which lost 3.29 pe cent and 2.44 per cent respectively, oil and gas, auto shares were also under pressure on BSE.
The 50-issue Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also dropped further by 42.20 points or 0.83 per cent to 5,066.70 from its last close. Sterlite Industries topped the list of losers at 4.21 per cent. Tata Steel lost 3.38 per cent. Realty major DLF was down by 2.88 per cent.
Meanwhile, the initial public offering of JSW Energy was subscribed fully within minutes of opening of the issue today. The price band of issue has been fixed at Rs 100-115 per equity share.
From index-based counters, Sterlite Ind dipped by 4.21 per cent, Tata Steel by 3.38 per cent, Hindalco by 3.22 per cent, RIL by 3.07 per cent, DLF by 2.88 per cent, M&M by 2.77 per cent, Sun Pharma by 1.92 per cent, Rel Com by 1.70 per cent and Jaipra Asso by 1.38 per cent.
However, Bharti Airtel rose by 2.11 per cent, HDFC by 1.23 per cent and L&T by 1.20 per cent. Among sectorial indices, the BSE-Metal tumbled by 554.92 points or 3.29 per cent, the BSE-Realty by 96.61 points or 2.44 pct and the BSE-Oil&Gas by 205.94 points or 1.97 pct.
The market breadth remained negative with 1,461 counters losing ground against 1,317 that ending with gains on the BSE. The trading volume dropped further to Rs 4,763.47 crore from Rs 5,141.25 crore last Friday.
SBI topped the list of highest traded securities with the turnover of Rs 202.60 crore followed by Suzlon Energy (Rs 153.07 crore), RIL (Rs 119.72 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 104.95 crore) and Satyam Com (Rs 102.95 crore).
