Mumbai: The Indian stock market witnessed another session of heavy selling on Tuesday. After a brief recovery last week, bears tightened their grip once again, dragging both benchmark indices sharply lower by the close.
Sensex falls 534 points to settle at 84,680 while the Nifty tumbled 167 points to end at 25,860 on December 16. Profit booking and weak global cues played spoilsport, keeping investors on the edge throughout the day.
Sensex Falls 534 Points: Most Stocks in the Red
Out of the 30 Sensex constituents, a whopping 23 closed in negative territory. Axis Bank and Zomato were the biggest losers, plunging around 5% each. Other notable decliners included heavyweights from banking and financial services. On the brighter side, Titan and Bharti Airtel bucked the trend, gaining close to 2%.
In the broader Nifty pack, 39 out of 50 stocks finished lower. Sectoral indices painted a grim picture – banking, realty, metal, auto and pharma faced intense selling pressure. Only media and consumer durables managed to close in the green, offering some pockets of relief.
Global Markets Add to the Pressure
Overseas markets provided no comfort either. Asian indices ended deep in the red:
- South Korea’s Kospi plunged 2.24% to 3,999
- Japan’s Nikkei dropped 1.56% to 49,383
- Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 1.54% to 25,235
- China’s Shanghai Composite fell 1.11% to 3,825
Wall Street had closed mildly lower the previous night, with the Dow Jones down 0.086% at 48,416, Nasdaq slipping 0.59% and the S&P 500 declining 0.16%. These subdued international signals weighed on sentiment right from the opening bell in Dalal Street.
What’s Keeping Investors Cautious?
Traders on the floor point to continued foreign fund outflows, rising bond yields and uncertainty over upcoming economic data as key factors behind the caution. Midcap and smallcap segments also came under pressure, though they held up relatively better than the frontline indices.
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