Sensex descend for second week, slide 449 points

Mumbai: The BSE benchmark Sensex marked biggest loss not seen since five weeks, dropping 448.86 points to finish at 26,040.70, while the broader Nifty dipped below the psychological 8,000-level.

Bearishness tagged the trading momentum from day-one of the week, borne by cascading effect of demonitization, it was further restricted by mute sentiment across the globe due to long Christmas and New Year holidays.

While, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) pursued selling of Indian equities amid US outlook over rate-hike next year, while local delay over GST implementation led investors fret.

Investor sentiment, void of any triggers opted mostly to stay sidelines or cashed in profits on opportunity during the week, while it led the key indices to mark one-month lows and revist 25K-level.

However, the market did overcome string of losses to witness mild recovery and reclaim the key 26K-level during the weekend trade on bouts of shortcovering after signs of progress in two-day GST-council meet and optimism about its implementation.

During the week, the Sensex dropped 448.86 points, or 1.69 per cent, to finish at 26,040.70. It hovered in the range of 26,505.66 and 25,872.38. The Nifty 50 index during the week slumped 153.70 points, or 1.89 per cent, to conclude below the key 8K-level at 7,985.75 after shuttling between 8,132.50 and 7,942.05.

Across the spectrum selling pressure was witnessed led by Health Care, Metal, IPOs, FMCG, Capital Goods, PSUs, Power, Auto, Teck, Consumer Durables, IT, Realty and Oil and Gas sectors. The broader midcap and smallcap shares also saw heavy selling.  

Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) and foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth whopping Rs 4,319.76 crore during the week, as per Sebi's record including the provisional figure of December 23.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-Cap index dropped by 475.79 points or 3.89 per cent, to settle at 11,760.78 and the BSE Small-Cap index fell by 316.58 points or 2.61 per cent, to settle at 11,796.94.

Among sectoral and industry indices, Healthcare dipped 4.25 per cent followed by Metal 4.22 per cent, IPO 3.35 per cent, Banking 2.65 per cent, FMCG 2.11 per cent, Consumer goods 2.05 per cent, PSU 2.01 per cent, Power 1.79 per cent, Auto 1.73 per cent, Teck 1.66 per cent, Consumer Durables 1.40 per cent, IT 1.32 per cent and Realty 1.08 per cent.

Among the 30-share Sensex pack, 23 stocks fell, seven stocks rose. Major lossers from the Sensex pack were, Axis Bank 7.26 per cent, Adaniports 6.12 per cent, SBIN 5.85 per cent, Tata Steel 5.64 per cent, BhartiAirtel 4.66 per cent, ONGC 4.31 per cent, Sun Pharma 3.60 per cent, HDFC 3.30 per cent, Hindunilever 3.22 per cent, Dr Reddy 3.15 per cent, Asianpaint 3.01 per cent, HeroMotoco 2.91 per cent, Larsen 1.62 per cent, Lupin 1.58 per cent, Infosys 1.48 per cent, ICICI Bank 1.43 per cent, Tata Motors 1.34 per cent, Bajaj Auto 1.25 per cent and PowerGrid 1.17 per cent.

While, GAIL rose by 4.00 per cent and Cipla by 2.42 per cent. The total turnover during the week on BSE rose to Rs 12,523.76 crore from last weekend's level of Rs 12,267.93 crs while NSE fell to Rs 71,531.91 crs from Rs 82,768.15 crores.