Sensex today: Index dips 3% in March, steepest monthly drop since 2015
Sensex today: Index dips 3% in March, steepest monthly drop since 2015
Sensex today: The benchmark indices settled lower the derivative expiry of March series after Asian markets pulled back as Wall Street was knocked hard on concerns about tighter regulations on the tech industry, denting a brief global equities recovery driven by hopes of easing fears of a trade war between China and the United States. The Sensex settled at 32,968, down 205.71 points, while the broader Nifty50 ended at 10,113, down 70.45 points.
The indices posted a monthly loss of over 3 per cent, their steepest drop for the month of March since 2015.
In the broader market, the BSE Midcap and the BSE Smallcap indices slipped 0.5 per cent and 0.9 per cent, respectively. Market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, turned negative. On the BSE, 1,696 stocks declined, 935 stocks rallied, while 198 stocks remained unchanged.
The stock market will stay shut on Thursday and Friday and will resume trading next week on Monday.
Overseas, Europe’s main bourses opened more than 1 per cent in the red as the fifth sell-off in six days gathered momentum and sent risk-averse traders piling back to the safety of bond markets.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index was last down 1.1 per cent with the region’s tech sector down 2.6 per cent. US futures were pointing south again too.
Tuesday’s losses saw the Nasdaq slump almost 3 per cent and the broader S&P 500 drop 1.7 per cent. As well as the Facebook nosedive, Twitter fell 12 per cent while Google parent Alphabet slid 4.5 per cent.
Asia tumbled 1.5 per cent overnight, with Japan’s Nikkei ending down 1.3 per cent and top Chinese internet stock Tencent down 4.6 per cent.
On Tuesday, The Sensex settled the day at 33,174, up 107.98 points, while the broader Nifty50 ended at 10,184, up 53.50 points. In the broader market, the BSE Midcap and the BSE Smallcap indices outperformed to rally 1 per cent and 1.36 per cent.
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Jayant Manglik, President, Religare Broking
After two straight sessions of decent gains, aided by firm global cues and short covering, the equity benchmark indices resumed some selling pressure and ended the session on a negative note. The broader markets indices too remained weak, with BSE Midcap & Smallcap closing lower by 0.5% & 0.9% respectively. Barring Consumer durables and Oil&gas indices, all the other sectoral indices witnessed selling pressure with Healthcare, Telecom, Metal, Power and Realty being the top losers. Amongst the global markets, the Asian and European indices were trading lower.
We expect the Indian equities to remain range bound in the coming sessions. Domestic macro data and global developments will dictate the further course of the market in the near term. In the coming week with the release of volume data for March, Auto stocks would remain in focus. Valuations at current levels are not cheap and India continues to trade at a premium to the other emerging markets. Hence, for this premium to sustain, continued reform implementation and revival in the corporate earnings is essential.
Sectoral trend at close
Source: BSE
Buzzing stock: RIL
Shares of RIL slipped 2 per cent following news reports that the company is in talks to sell some of the Eagle Ford shale gas project's ‘assets’ in the US for $100 million to Sundance Energy. The sale is expected to close in the first quarter of the next financial year, subject to customary closing conditions.
Markets at close
The Sensex settled at 32,968, down 205.71 points, while the broader Nifty50 ended at 10,113, down 70.45 points.
Markets Update
At 10:30 am, the Sensex was trading at 32,967, down 207.15 points, while the broader Nifty50 was ruling at 10,118, down 65.40 points.
PSU bank stocks top losers
PSU bank stocks were the top losers with the Nifty PSU Bank index slipping over 1 per cent, led by losses in IDBI Bank, Indian Bank and PNB.
FAST MONEY: YES Bank, Wipro, IDBI Bank among 8 intraday trading tips
YES Bank (Buy)
Target: Rs 311
Stoploss: Rs 300- Board approved to demerge hospital business
- Fortis Healthcare’s hospital division will be merged with Manipal Hospitals YES Bank has 15% stake in Fortis
Fortis Healthcare tanks 8%
Fortis Heathcare shed over 8 per cent to Rs 128 after the company on Tuesday said its board has approved demerger of its hospitals business, which will be acquired by Manipal Hospitals and TPG Capital, along with the sale of 20 per cent stake in diagnostics chain SRL, in a Rs 3,900-crore deal.
Nifty outlook by Angel Broking
For this expiry, we were seeing 9950 – 9900 as a strong support zone as we saw couple of key Fibonacci ratios converging around it. Having said that this does not change the broader picture and hence, we expect market to face some selling pressure if Nifty rebounds in the range of 10250 – 10350. Today being an expiry day, 10200 – 10230 would be seen as a strong hurdle for the index. A failure to surpass this zone would result into some profit booking towards 10160 – 10130 levels. For the day, we expect continuation of this consolidation in benchmarks and thus, traders are advised to keep focusing on individual stocks with a proper exit strategy.
Sensex heatmap at open
(Source: BSE)
Markets at Open
At 9:25 am, the Sensex was trading at 33,028, down 145.59 points, while the broader Nifty50 was ruling at 10,131, down 53.15 points.
Nifty rollovers
After Monday’s sharp up move, Nifty opened up 50 bps and sustained higher ahead of the all important expiry session along with the Nifty Semi-annual review adjustment day.
Rollovers have been on the higher side going into the expiry day. Market-wide rollovers stands at 61% which is higher compared to the average rollovers of 55% (last three series). Market wide futures OI is ~INR 1.6tn as compared to ~INR 1.67tn on the D-1 of February expiry. Roll levels have been lower this series partly owing to existence of shorts in the system. Average roll levels across stock futures were ~48-50bps (cost to long rollers).
Nifty futures rollovers stand at 54% which is quite higher compared to the average rollovers of 44% (last three series). Nifty futures OI stands at INR 294bn (~28.8mn shares) as against the OI of INR 292bn (~28.1mn shares) on D-1 of the last series. Nifty futures roll levels (cost to long rollers) was ~31-33bps (screen levels of 32-35 points). Around 45.85k contracts got rolled today while ~7.2k contracts were added in the next month.
With rollovers on the higher side, we expect tomorrow’s session to be devoid of major bouts of volatility. We have highlighted few stocks below where we expect action in the VWAP if rolls don’t pick up.
(Source: Edelweiss Securities)
Wall Street closes sharply lower, tech stocks lead late selloff
Wall Street closed sharply lower Tuesday, with each of the major U.S. indexes suffering their fourth decline in five sessions, fuelled by a selloff in the tech sector. Tech stocks, among the best performing sectors of the bull market, have been under pressure recently as concerns about government regulation stemming from their strong growth and privacy questions surrounding Facebook.
Pre-open trade
The Sensex was trading at 33,098, down 76.30 points, while the broader Nifty50 was ruling at 10,143, down 40.55 points.
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