Sensex trims most of its losses to end 144 points down, Nifty closes at 7,915; Jet Airways shares gain

The benchmark BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty pared some of the day’s losses and closed in red for the third consecutive trading session on Monday. The sell-off was triggered by the setback suffered by the BJP-led NDA in Bihar assembly elections. Sensex closed 143.84 points down at 26,121, while Nifty closed 39.10 points down at 7,915.20.

Sensex opened the day at 25,809 and touched a high and low of 26,193.17 and 25,656.90, respectively, in trade on Monday. Similarly, Nifty opened at 7,788.25 and touched a high and low of 7,937.75 and 7,771.70, respectively in trade.

In the 30-share index, Tata Motors, Maruti, ITC and Vedanta gained between 1.50 per cent and 3.90 per cent. However, share price of Sun Pharma, BHEL and Dr Reddy’s Labs declined between 3.40 per cent and 5.85 per cent.

Gaurav Jain, director, Hem Securities, said, “Indices opened in deep red on NDA losing the Bihar elections. Further, worries of a US Fed rate hike next month backed by improved payroll numbers also added fuel to the negative sentiment. However, lower level buying posted sharp recovery on the benchmarks.”

Among the sectoral indices on the Bombay Stock Exchange, the BSE Realty index slid the most — 2.2 per cent, followed by BSE Healthcare index (down 1.31 per cent) and BSE TECk index (down 0.70 per cent). The BSE Consumer Durables index and BSE Auto index gained 2.24 per cent and 1.25 per cent, respectively.

Shares of Jet Airways jumped 5.93 per cent after the company’s chairman Naresh Goyal said on Monday the Indian carrier was ordering 75 Boeing 737 Max aircraft.

Overall market breadth for the day remained mildly negative as advances to declines ratio for Nifty stood at 18:32 for the day. Volumes for Nifty stocks stood at 2,182 lakh, almost in line with Friday’s volumes of 2,262 lakh for Nifty stocks.

On the global front, most of the Asian markets ended in red as odds on the Federal Reserve hiking benchmark rates at its next meeting in December increased after the payrolls data signaled the US labor market is on a solid footing. However, the Chinese and Japanese markets posted strong gains as the Chinese exports posted fourth monthly drop and raised hopes of more stimulus. Overseas shipments dropped 6.9 percent in October in dollar terms. The weakness in yen supported the Japanese market after the dollar jumped to a more than six-month high after data showed the US economy created more jobs than expected in October. The European markets made a mixed start after snapping the previous session on a similar note.