Bears tighten grip over Dalal Street in early deals; Sensex plunges over 700 points

Indian equity benchmarks made gap-down opening of the F&O series expiry week tracking losses in Asian counterparts. Domestic equity markets soon extended their losses and are trading deeply in red with cut of over a percent each in early deals on Monday. Deprecation in rupee continue to dent sentiments in domestic markets. The rupee opened 0.68% lower to hit a fresh record low of 81.55 against the greenback. Traders were concerned after infusing more than Rs 51,000 crore last month, foreign investors have slowed down the pace of equity buying in India in September so far, as they invested a little over Rs 8,600 crore, on sharp depreciation in rupee. Market participants largely overlooked Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that the rupee has held back very well when compared to other currencies against the US Dollar. She added that the Reserve Bank and the Finance Ministry are keeping a very close watch over the developments.

On the global front, most of the Asian markets are trading lower following the broadly negative cues from global markets on Friday, as traders remain concerned the aggressive monetary tightening by global central banks to combat elevated inflation will push the global economy into a recession, rendering the mood in the markets extremely bearish. Back home, insurance industry stocks were trading lower despite data from insurance sector regulator Irdai showing that non-life insurers registered a 12 per cent yearly growth in their gross direct premium income during August this fiscal at Rs 24,471.95 crore. In stock specific development, BPCL rose after it signed an agreement with Brazil's Petrobras to help it diversify its crude oil sourcing.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 57360.12, down by 738.80 points or 1.27% after trading in a range of 57255.87 and 57708.38. There were 2 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 2.67%, while Small cap index was down by 3.00%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities down by 4.07%, Power down by 3.92%, Metal down by 3.86%, Realty down by 3.26%, Auto down by 3.26%, while there was no gainer on the BSE sectoral front.

The only gainers on the Sensex were Nestle up by 1.10% and Infosys up by 0.12%. On the flip side, Power Grid Corp down by 6.24%, Tata Steel down by 4.27%, Maruti Suzuki down by 3.70%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 3.29% and Indusind Bank down by 2.53% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, expressing optimism over India’s foreign investment, the commerce and industry ministry has said the country is on track to attract $100 billion foreign direct investment (FDI) in the current fiscal on account of economic reforms and ease of doing business in recent years. In 2021-22, the country received the ‘highest ever’ foreign inflows of $83.6 billion. It added that this FDI has come from 101 countries, and invested across 31 union territories and states and 57 sectors in the country.

It said that to attract foreign investments, the government has put in place a liberal and transparent policy wherein most sectors are open to FDI under the automatic route. It added that the reform measures include liberalization of guidelines and regulations, in order to reduce unnecessary compliance burden, bring down cost and enhance the ease of doing business in India.

Besides, FDI equity inflows in India dipped by 6 per cent to $16.6 billion during April-June period of the current fiscal. It also said that to address the import of low-quality and hazardous toys and to enhance domestic manufacturing of toys, several strategic interventions have been taken by the government. The import of toys in 2021-22 reduced by 70 per cent to $110 million (Rs 877.8 crore). On the other hand, exports rose by 61 per cent to $326 million.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17073.75, down by 253.60 points or 1.46% after trading in a range of 17054.50 and 17196.40. There were 4 stocks advancing against 46 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Nestle up by 1.15%, Britannia Industries up by 0.38%, BPCL up by 0.32% and Infosys up by 0.11%. On the flip side, Power Grid Corp down by 6.25%, Tata Motors down by 5.29%, Hindalco down by 4.98%, Apollo Hospital down by 4.78% and Tata Steel down by 4.31% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 642.65 points or 2.37% to 26,511.18, Straits Times fell 32.02 points or 0.99% to 3,195.08, Taiwan Weighted plunged 312.81 points or 2.22% to 13,805.57, KOSPI declined 58.23 points or 2.54% to 2,231.77, Jakarta Composite lost 90.08 points or 1.25% to 7,088.50 and Shanghai Composite was down by 2.61 points or 0.08% to 3,085.76, while Hang Seng was up by 21.10 points or 0.12% to 17,954.37.