Sensex falls 128 points, Nifty trips below 10,300 ahead of inflation data

Sensex and Nifty fell more than 0.4% in the wee hours of trades on Tuesday after starting off on a weak note as investors turned cautious ahead of key macroeconomic data which is lined up for later today. Among the macro data, Inflation data for the month of November is due for later today evening along with Industrial and manufacturing productions for the month of October and current account data. BSE Sensex washed off as much as 128.97 points to hit a day’s low of 33,326.82 while NSE Nifty lost 49.75 points to mark the day’s low at 10,272.5. Shares of HDFC Bank, ITC, ICICI Bank, TCS, L&T and Bharti Airtel dragged the key equity indices Sensex and Nifty.

The stocks of Dr Reddy’s, ONGC, Lupin, Reliance Industries, Tata Motors, and Maruti Suzuki were the only notable gainers on Sensex, advanced up to 3.72%. While on the other hand, shares of Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints, ITC, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Auto, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and HDFC Bank shed up to 1.63%. The heavyweight stocks of HDFC Bank, ITC, ICICI Bank, TCS, L&T and Bharti Airtel contributed heavily to the Sensex losses. Collectively these six stocks alone shaved off about 118 points while an uptick in Dr Reddy’s and RIL helped to trim the losses, added about 44 points to the index.

Meanwhile, India’s second-largest state-run lender Punjab National Bank launched a QIP (qualified institutional placement) on Tuesday. Through the share sale, Punjab National Bank is expected to garner up to Rs 5,000 crore. A total of about 212.79 crore shares have been offered via QIP route and the bank has approved a floor price of Rs 176.35 per equity share. Punjab National Bank may offer a discount of not more than 5% on the floor price. Punjab National Bank is expected to raise at least Rs 3,000 crore with an upsize option for another Rs 2,000 crore, Reuters said in a report. Shares of PNB rose 1.88% to hit the day’s high of Rs 176.1.

Among the Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index was flat at 22,944.21, South Korea’s Kospi dropped 0.5% to 2,460.06, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng sank 0.7% to 28,771,54. and China’s Shanghai Composite index shed 0.4% to 3,307.57. Wall Street indexes closed higher on Monday and the biggest drivers were technology and energy sectors as oil prices rose and investors waited for an expected US Federal Reserve rate hike later in the week, Reuters said in a report. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 56.87 points or 0.23% to 24,386.03, the S&P 500 gained 8.49 points or 0.32% to 2,659.99 and the Nasdaq Composite added 35.00 points or 0.51% to 6,875.08.