
The Indian equity market fell on Monday as investors remained cautious amid unabated selling by foreign funds and elevated crude oil prices ahead of the RBI's policy decision later this week. Sensex declined 93.91 points to close at 55,675. During the day, the 30-stock index tanked 473.49 points to 55,295.74. Nifty fell 14.75 points to finish at 16,569.55.
Asian Paints, UltraTech Cement, Bajaj Finserv, Dr Reddy's, Nestle, Larsen & Toubro, HUL and Axis Bank were the top Sensex losers , falling up to 2.36 per cent. Tata Steel, IndusInd Bank, M&M and Kotak Mahindra Bank were among the major gainers, rising up to 0.99 per cent.
Market cap of BSE-listed firms fell to Rs 256.41 lakh crore today against Rs Rs 257 lakh crore on Friday.
Market breadth was negative with 1,429 shares ending higher against 1,970 stocks falling on BSE. 158 shares were unchanged.
BSE mid cap and small cap indices fell 35 points and lost 143 points, respectively.
Nagaraj Shetti, Technical Research Analyst, HDFC Securities said, "After showing higher level of weakness on Friday, Nifty shifted into a range bound action on Monday and closed the day lower by 14 points. After opening on a negative note, the market slipped into further weakness in the early part of the session. Intraday upside recovery has emerged from near the support of 16450 levels, but the market later shifted into a range movement for better part of the session. The opening downside gap has been filled completely. A small positive candle was formed on the daily chart with minor upper and lower shadow. Technically, this pattern indicates high wave type candle formation. Normally, formation of such patterns after a reasonable upmove or down moves calls for reversal on either side. But, having formed this pattern amidst a range movement, the predictive value could be less."
Benchmark indices ended lower due to fag-end sell-off on Friday amid positive global cues. Sensex fell 49 points to 55,769 and Nifty ended 43 points lower at 16,584. During the day, Sensex hit a high of 56,432.65 and a low of 55,719.36.
UltraTech Cement, Maruti, NTPC, Bajaj Finserv, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank and M&M were the top Sensex losers, falling up to 5.49 per cent. Foreign institutional investors offloaded shares worth a net Rs 3,770.51 crore on Friday, according to stock exchange data.
Global markets
Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong ended in the green today. Bourses in Europe were trading higher during afternoon trade. Stock markets in the US had ended lower on Friday. Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude rose 0.61 per cent to $120.4 per barrel.