Sensex slumps 322 points on May series F&O expiry day

Infosys, Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank pulled the benchmark Sensex almost 200 points lower.

Market slumped on May series futures and options contracts expiry day as investors rolled over positions into the near-term June series.

On expiry, Navneet Daga-Derivative Analyst at KR Choksey Securities said "Nifty our call is Nifty to expire very much near 7300 zone for may series, currently rollovers are in line with previous expire, but the base is higher for rolls. Nifty remains buy on dips till 7250 holds on. Nifty 7500 Call hold the maximum OI for June series suggesting resistance point."

May series rollover data suggests that consolidation will continue going ahead. Experts said strong rollover were witnessed in Adani group stocks.

 

Market expressed its concern over top level executives exitting the software giant -Infosys, amid continued underperfornace by the hiterto index bellwether.  The stock fell almost 8% reacting to the exit of B G Srinivas, Infosys' president and board member who was widely expected to take over as the chief executive officer (CEO). The stock closed at Rs 2,924.30.   

Infosys, Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank collectively pulled the benchmark Sensex almost 200 points lower.
 
The 30-share Sensex was closed 322 points lower at 24,134 and the Nifty slipped below to 7,235 levels, down 94 points.
 
Broader markets too surrendered their early gains and both the mid and smallcap indices of the BSE ended 0.3-0.4% lower.

 
On the currency front, the rupee was trading at 59.01 versus its previous close of 58.93/94, with dollar selling by some corporates seen but month-end demand for the greenback from importers limiting the rise.
 
Sectors & Stocks
 
Among the sectoral indices, only Health Care ended the day marginally in the green zone.
 
IT index, dragged down by Infosys, tanked over 3% leading the sectoral losers, worst among which include Oil & Gas, capital goods and Realty indices which ended 1-1.6% lower.
 
Hindalco and Dr Reddys Labs added over 1% and were the top gainers among Sensex-30 stocks. Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), NTPC and Sun Pharma were other heavyweight gainers. 

Apart from Infosys, ONGC, Wipro and BHEL Coal India were other heavyweight losers.

The market breadth was negative on BSE. 1,551 stocks declined while 1,407 stocks advanced.
 
Asian Markets
 
Asian shares inched up to a one-year high on Thursday while global bond prices surged, pushing their yields to multi-month lows, supported by expectations of easier monetary policy from the European Central Bank.
 
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan  rose 0.15%, led by gains in Hong Kong and Singapore shares and hitting one-year highs for the fifth time in the last six sessions.
 
Japan's Nikkei share average gained 0.1%.