Sensex snaps 3-day rally, falls 337 points

The markets tumbled on Monday, as investors across the world shunned riskier assets following weak US jobs data and concerns over Hungary’s fiscal situation.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) benchmark Sensex shed 1.97 per cent, or 336.62 points, to close at 16,795.86. The 30-share index touched a low of 16,686.73 during the day’s trade.

“In the absence of local cues, markets are just following global developments,” said Rajesh Baheti, managing director, Crossseas Capital Services, adding that global sentiments would dictate the market movement in the near term.

At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the 50-stock Nifty fell 1.98 per cent, or 101.50 points, to 5,034.

On Friday, major US stock indices fell more than three per cent after a government report showed that employers added fewer-than-expected jobs in May. Hungary’s debt woes also raised concerns among investors that the European sovereign-debt crisis might spread across the region.

According to provisional figures available on the BSE website, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 100.91 crore in the cash market today, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold shares to the tune of Rs 126.61 crore.

Real estate major DLF lost 6.19 per cent at Rs 264.25. Hindalco declined 5.07 per cent to Rs 140.35. Tata Steel, Tata Motors and Sterlite fell more than four per cent each.

All the sectoral indices on BSE ended in red, with metal and realty falling the most. The BSE Metal Index lost 3.99 per cent, while the BSE Realty Index fell 3.89 per cent.

Market breadth was negative, with more than two stocks declining for every advancing stock.

Major Asian markets ended in red today. Japan’s Nikkei 225 plunged 3.8 per cent to 9,520.80, its worst daily percentage loss of the year. Taiwan’s Taiex dropped 2.5 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng ended down two per cent, South Korea’s Kospi declined 1.6 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite fell 1.6 per cent.

At 5.00 pm IST, European markets were trading in the negative territory. UK’s FTSE 100 was down 0.35 per cent, Germany’s DAX was trading 0.17 per cent lower, and France’s CAC-40 had fallen almost 0.31 per cent.

RCom gains 5%

The ADAG firm Reliance Communications (RCom) soared nearly five per cent in a weak trade on BSE on Monday, making investors richer by nearly Rs 1,600 crore, a day after its board approved 26 per cent stake sale.

RCom rose 4.61 per cent to Rs 175.90. During the day, the shares of the country’s second-largest telco by consumer base climbed 6.45 per cent to high of Rs 179.

The market valuation of RCom rose by Rs 1,599.73 crore to settle at Rs 36,306.23 crore at the end of the trade on BSE today. The market valuation of RCom was Rs 34,706.50 crore on June 4.