Market continues to bleed

The bloodbath on the bourses continued unabated in the early afternoon trade amid global sell-off. At 12:15 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 1,033.76 points or 2.97% at 33,723.40. The Nifty 50 index slumped 312.85 points or 2.93% at 10,353.70. The Sensex was trading below the 34,000 level after nose-diving below that level at the opening trade. All the shares in the 30-share Sensex pack were in red. All the 19 sectoral indices on BSE languished in red.

Key indices opened sharply lower on weak global cues and languished in negative terrain so far. Global equities tumbled as interest rates in US headed higher amid concerns of returning inflation. Trading of US index futures indicated that the Dow index could slide 441 points at the opening bell today, 6 February 2018.

Among secondary indices, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index tumbled 3.09%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index fell 3.74%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.

The broad market depicted weakness. There were more than 10 losers against every gainer on BSE. 2,368 shares declined and 226 shares advanced. A total of 100 shares were unchanged.

IT stocks fell. HCL Technologies (down 3.36%), Tech Mahindra (down 2.73%), TCS (down 2.59%), Wipro (down 2.28%), Infosys (down 2.24%) and Oracle Financial Services Software (down 1.69%) declined.

Realty stocks tumbled. Prestige Estates Projects (down 6.95%), Indiabulls Real Estate (down 6.14%), Unitech (down 5.95%), Godrej Properties (down 5.92%), DLF (down 5.22%), D B Realty (down 5%), HDIL (down 4.95%), Oberoi Realty (down 3.88%) and Sobha (down 3.55%) fell.

AstraZeneca Pharma India tanked 9.04% at Rs 1,040 after the company reported net loss of Rs 10.35 crore in Q3 December 2017 compared with net profit of Rs 16.21 crore in Q3 December 2016. Net sales dropped 14.5% to Rs 128.54 crore in Q3 December 2017 over Q3 December 2016. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 5 February 2018.

On the macro front, the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will meet today, 6 February and tomorrow, 7 February 2018 for the sixth bi-monthly monetary policy statement for 2017-18. The resolution of the MPC will be announced tomorrow, 7 February 2018. The central bank is likely to keep its policy rate on hold, but could toughen its warnings against inflation. The MPC is expected to tilt towards a hawkish tone from its neutral tone following higher fiscal targets, oil price increases and higher minimum support prices (MSP) for crops.

Overseas, Asian stocks tanked following a sharp sell-off on Wall Street. US stocks tumbled yesterday, 5 February 2018 as interest rates headed higher amid concerns of returning inflation.

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