Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks ended lower on Monday, as escalating geopolitical tensions in the West Asia weighed on investors’ sentiments, fueling uncertainty across global markets. Markets made a gap-down opening and remained under pressure throughout the session, led by heavy selling in banking stocks following the release of their quarterly earnings.

Some of the important factors in trade:

FIIs selling pressure persists: Traders remained cautious, as foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers on July 17, offloading Indian equities worth Rs 376 crore.

India, EU working on proposed investment protection, GI agreements: Traders overlooked Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that India and the European Union (EU) are working on the proposed investment protection and GI (Geographical Indications) agreement after concluding a free trade agreement.

ASEAN, Africa lead India's export growth in first two months of FY27: Traders also paid no heed towards the commerce ministry’s data showing that Asean and African regions emerged as the biggest contributors to India's export growth during the first two months of the current fiscal.

On the global front: European markets were trading mostly in green, ahead of the upcoming European Central Bank meeting, with the central bank widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged. Asian markets closed mixed, even after the Malaysian foreign trade surplus increased notably in June from a year ago as exports grew faster than imports. 

The BSE Sensex ended at 77708.52, down by 442.93 points or 0.57% after trading in a range of 77368.29 and 78151.45. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 1.73%, Power up by 1.48%, PSU up by 1.17%, Healthcare up by 1.11% and Basic Materials up by 0.81%, while Bankex down by 0.77%, Auto down by 0.36%, IT down by 0.28%, Realty down by 0.19% and Telecom down by 0.02% were the top losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Trent up by 2.83%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.68%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.66%, State Bank of India up by 1.62% and HCL Technologies up by 1.53%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 5.32%, HDFC Bank down by 4.85%, Maruti Suzuki India down by 2.54%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.71% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.70% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, the Commerce Ministry has said that India and Spain have agreed to advance discussions quickly on enabling interoperability between India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Spain's Bizum digital payments platform. 

Moreover, India and Spain have discussed ways to strengthen investment facilitation, improving mobility of professionals and promoting joint investments in Latin America, leveraging Spain's strategic position as India's gateway to Europe and Latin America

The ministry said the two sides also have identified significant opportunities in automobiles, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, textiles, renewable energy, tourism and infrastructure. 

The CNX Nifty ended at 24238.50, down by 95.80 points or 0.39% after trading in a range of 24135.85 and 24266.10. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Trent up by 3.04%, Power Grid Corporation of India up by 1.82%, Nestle India up by 1.81%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.64% and NTPC up by 1.58%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 5.38%, HDFC Bank down by 5.08%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 2.12%, Maruti Suzuki India down by 2.09% and JIO Financial Services down by 1.67% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading mostly in green; Germany’s DAX gained 92.92 points or 0.37% to 24,923.90 and France’s CAC rose 22.89 points or 0.27% to 8,361.70, while UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 38.89 points or 0.37% to 10,561.48.

Asian markets ended mostly lower on Monday tracking Wall Street's fall last Friday and concerns about the escalating conflict in the Middle East. The US military carried out a wave of airstrikes in Iran over the weekend as it announced that a third US service member had been killed in military operations since Friday. Subsequently, Tehran declared that its ceasefire with the US had effectively collapsed and stated it intercepted 4 vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend. Seoul shares slumped as investors aggressively offloaded artificial intelligence and memory chip stocks. Meanwhile, Japanese markets were closed for Marine Day holiday after the Japan's Nikkei slumped 6.4% last week in a tech-led rout.