Sensex plunges over 826 points, Nifty falls by 249 points in early trade

Indian equity indices fell sharply in early trade on Monday, with the Sensex falling 826 points amid a weak trend in global markets. After a weak start, the Sensex fell 825.61 points to 57,365.68. The Nifty dropped 249.95 points to 17,064.70.

Asian Paints, ITC, Reliance, Bajaj Finserv, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Tata Steel, Nestle, and Hindustan Unilever were the main laggards in early trade within the Sensex group. Axis Bank, TCS, Power Grid Corp, NTPC, Maruti Suzuki, and ICICI Bank, on the other hand, were the winners.

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Asian markets are trading mostly in red the Straits Times declining 36.34 points or 1.16% to 3,109.47, Hang Seng falling 450.38 points or 2.54% to 17,289.67, Jakarta Composite falling 50.61 points or 0.72% to 6,976.17 and Shanghai Composite was down by 11.81 points or 0.39% to 3,012.58.

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The US markets ended lower on Friday. The S&P 500 fell 104.86 points, or 2.80%, to 3,639.36. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 630.15 points, or 12.11%, to 29,296.79. The Nasdaq composite fell 420.91 points, or 3.80%, to 10,652.40. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 50.63 points, or 2.87%, to 1,702.15.

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“The paradoxical construct of good economic news turning out to be bad news for markets played out again last Friday in the US. The surprisingly low US unemployment rate at 3.5% implies that the Fed will have to continue raising interest rates longer than the markets had discounted,” said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

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For the near-term, equity markets will be in uncertain territory with a downward bias, he added. “The big question is whether India would continue to outperform,” Vijayakumar noted.

On Friday, the Sensex fell 30.81 points, or 0.05%, to 58,191.29. The Nifty lost 17.15 points, or 0.01%, to close at 17,314.65.

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Brent oil futures declined 0.57% to $97.36 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate crude futures slipped 0.52% to $92.16 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 2.250.77 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased shares worth a net Rs 545.25 crore on October 7, as per provisional data available on the NSE.

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The rupee fell 39 paise to an all-time low of 82.69 versus the US dollar in opening trade on Friday as elevated crude oil prices and risk-averse sentiment among investors weighed on the local unit.