Global cues, weak rupee subdue equities; oil, gas stocks slump (Roundup)

Negative global cues, including rising crude oil prices and the escalating trade war concerns along with a weak Indian rupee, pulled the domestic equity indices deep into the red on Wednesday.

Benchmark Asian indices also traded in the negative territory during the day.

In the domestic market, the NSE Nifty50 closed at 10,671.40 points, down 97.75 points or 0.91 per cent from the previous close of 10,769.15 points.

Similarly, the barometer 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE, which had opened at 35,543.89 points, closed at 35,217.11 points -- down 272.93 points or 0.77 per cent -- from its previous close of 35,490.04 points.

The Sensex touched an intra-day high of 35,618.85 and a low of 35,154.21 points. The BSE market breadth was bearish with 2,218 declines and 464 advances.

"Weak global cues on the back of escalating global trade tension between the world's biggest economic powers dented the market sentiments," said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities.

Dhruv Desai, Director and Chief Operating Officer of Tradebulls, said: "Indian market ended in red due to a rise in global crude oil prices and rupee hitting a 19-month low during the day, and traders turned cautious a day before the expiry of June derivatives contracts."

The rupee hit a low of 68.70 per dollar on Wednesday before ending 36 paise weaker at 68.61 per greenback.

Investment-wise, provisional data with exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors bought scrip worth Rs 67.44 crore while the domestic institutional investors bought stocks worth Rs 84.31 crore.

Sector-wise, the only gainer was the S&P BSE IT index which ended marginally higher by 13.46 points.

On the other hand, S&P BSE Oil & Gas index plunged by 540.40 points, the capital goods index by 414.85 points and the auto index ended lower by 324 points.

The major gainers on the Sensex were HDFC Bank, up 0.89 per cent at Rs 2,111.65; Coal India, up 0.74 per cent at Rs 266.45; Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), up 0.38 per cent at Rs 1,859.80; Adani Ports, up 0.37 per cent at Rs 364.70; and Sun Pharma, up 0.35 per cent at Rs 574.95 per share.

The top losers were ICICI Bank, down 3.16 per cent at Rs 278.90; Larsen and Toubro, down 2.71 per cent at Rs 1,235.10; Tata Motors (DVR), down 2.44 per cent at Rs 161.85, Tata Motors, down 2.22 per cent at Rs 271.20; and State Bank of India, down 2.06 per cent at Rs 261.65 per share.

--IANS

rrb/nir