A set of lacklustre economic data spoiled investor mood today as benchmarks Sensex and Nifty gave in by surrendering all their early gains and ended in the red.
Participants got the chills as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) today lowered India’s economic growth forecast for 2017 -18 to 6.7 per cent from 7 per cent, citing lingering effect of domonetisation, transitory challenges to GST and weather- related risks to agriculture.
Government macro data were not favourable either, which showed November
Investors also looked forward to the Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting outcome later in the day.
The BSE index changed sides many a time, which settled down by 174.95 points, or 0.53 per cent, at 33,053.04 -- a level last seen on December 7.
The previous day’s loss was 228 points.
The 50-share NSE Nifty failed to hang on to 10,200 by falling 47.20 points, or 0.46 per cent, at 10,192.95 after hovering between 10,169.85 and 10,296.55.
“It was another day of losses on the bourses as key indices started the day on a subdued note and traded in negative zone on mixed Asian cues and data showing a surge in India’s consumer price inflation and a moderate growth in industrial production,” said Karthikraj Lakshmanan, Senior Fund Manager — Equities, BNP Paribas Mutual Fund.
Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold shares to the tune of Rs 853.67 crore while foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought equities net Rs 843.20 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.
Cipla’s loss stood at 2.13 per cent, the most for a Sensex component, followed by Adani Ports.
SBI, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, L&T, Tata Steel and Power Grid ran up losses too. Kotak Bank, TCS, ONGC, Dr Reddy’s and Hindustan Unilever rose, cushioning the fall.
The BSE realty index was the hardest hit by 2.27 per cent. Metal, capital goods and healthcare fell out of favour.
In sync with the overall trend, the broader markets also witnessed selling, with the mid-cap index declining 0.84 per cent and small-cap 0.81 per cent.
Unitech crashed about 14 per cent after the Supreme Court stayed NCLT order allowing the Centre to take over the management of the embattled firm.