Sensex ends 159 points down on selling pressure, Nifty settles at 7,855; Bharti Airtel, TCS gain

The benchmark BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty plunged 159.21 points and 44.25 points on Monday on account of selling pressure in energy, metal, oil and gas sectors amid lower Asian cues. Sensex closed 0.62 per cent down at 25,678.93, while Nifty 50 index settled 0.56 per cent down at 7,855.05. Investors remained cautious ahead of the central bank meetings in the US and Japan this week for future policy moves. Depreciation in Indian rupee too dampened sentiments.

In the Nifty pack, Bharti Airtel surged the most — 1.66 per cent, it was followed by TCS (up 1.49 per cent), Ambuja Cements (up 1.49 per cent), Adani Ports (up 1.13 per cent) and BPCL (up 1.06 per cent). On the other hand, Reliance Industries, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors DVR, NTPC and Bank of Baroda slid 2.35 per cent, 2.25 per cent, 2.17 per cent, 2.16 per cent and 2.10 per cent, respectively.

Sectorwise, the BSE Power index, BSE Metal and BSE Oil & Gas index slid 1.43 per cent, 1.06 per cent and 0.95 per cent, respectively. The BSE Telecom index and BSE TECk index gained 0.66 per cent and 0.30 per cent, respectively.

Among day’s major market moving events, shares of Bharti Airtel remained in action after the telcom major announced its plans of shelling out a final dividend or a share buyback or both on its shareholder’s meeting that is to be held on April 27. The stock was up more than 3 per cent intraday on the bourses over the news.

On the other hand, shares of Zensar Technologies remained under selling pressure post its Q4 announcements. The stock was down by more than 7 per cent intraday on NSE after the company announced a marginal drop in its consolidated net profits weighed down mainly by lower revenue from its maintenance service businesses.

Shares of Cairn India remained under pressure after the company announced a quarterly loss of Rs 10,948 crore for Q4FY16 against a loss of Rs 240.82 crores in the same quarter the previous fiscal. The loss is mainly led by impairment loss on goodwill and non-producing oil and gas assets owing to drop in oil prices.

Overall, market breadth remained in the favour off of decliners, as there were 1,073 shares on the gaining side against 1,541 shares on the losing side while 150 shares remain unchanged.

On the global front, European markets were trading in red in early deals, consolidating gains from a strong week which saw a top index touch a 3-month high, with a drop in French utility EDF weighing on the market. Asian markets ended mostly in red, as telecommunication companies led Japanese shares lower and investors awaited policy decisions this week from the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan.