Sensex falls 135 points as IMF cuts economic forecast; metal and auto stocks suffer

Equity benchmark indices erased morning gains in the afternoon trade on Wednesday and continued their downward slide for the fifth consecutive day after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) lowered its forecast for global and Indian economy.

Foreign investors have been selling heavily for the past few days after the announcement of tax surcharge in Union Budget for 2019-20. Besides, corporate results have taken a hit amid sluggish demand and weak monsoons.

As the IMF slashed its forecast for Indian economic growth by 30 basis points to 7 per cent in 2019 and 7.2 per cent in 2020, the BSE S & P Sensex closed 135 points lower at 37,848 while Nifty 50 plunged 60 points at 11,271.

At the National Stock Exchange, all sectoral indices were in the negative territory except for FMCG and media. Nifty metal tumbled by 2.37 per cent, auto by 1.95 per cent, pharma by 1.77 per cent and PSU bank by 1.73 per cent.

Among stocks, UPL dropped 5.5 per cent to close at Rs 610 per share. Adani Ports wound up the day over 5 per cent lower, Indiabulls Housing Finance by 4.5 per cent, Eicher Motors by 3.7 per cent and IndusInd Bank by 3.6 per cent.

However, Zee Entertainment gained 4.3 per cent, Asian Paints by 3.4 per cent and Hindustan Lever by 2.2 per cent. HDFC and HCL Technologies also showed gains of over 1.2 per cent and 1.9 per cent respectively.

Meanwhile, most stocks rose in Asia after reports that the United States and China will resume trade talks next week with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer travelling to Shanghai.

Japan's Nikkei added 0.4 per cent, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.4 per cent and Chinese blue chips climbed 1.2 per cent.

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