BackSensex closes 84 points lower at 21,171
Bhel posts the biggest two-day decline in a month; Coal India rebounds after it challenged CCI's imposition of a `1,770 crore penalty
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Mumbai: India’s benchmark stock index, Sensex, fell for the second day, led by industrial companies and lenders.
Turbine producer Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (Bhel) posted the biggest two-day decline in a month dragging the S&P BSE Capital Goods index by 1.3%. State Bank of India (SBI) retreated 2.59% to ₹ 1,796.70, sending a gauge of lenders to its lowest level in a week. Coal India Ltd rebounded 1.16% to ₹ 288.75 after the largest producer of the fuel challenged an Indian antitrust body’s (Competition Commission of India’s, or CCI’s) imposition of a ₹ 1,770 crore penalty.
The S&P BSE Sensex lost 0.39%, or 83.85 points, to 21,171.41 at close in Mumbai. The gauge climbed to an all-time high on 9 December, sending valuations to a five-week high, after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the state elections, giving it momentum to end the ruling Congress party’s decade-long rule in polls due by May and install Narendra Modi as Prime Minister.
NTPC Ltd reversed Tuesday’s loses to gain 2.43% to ₹ 139.30.
Jindal Steel and Power Ltd declined 0.13% to ₹ 267, Tata Motors Ltd fell 3.25% to ₹ 377.80, while Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd (ONGC) shed 2.08% to ₹ 291.75.
“The market was overextended after the sharp rally and is consolidating now," Akash Dharia, head of derivatives at ICICI Securities Ltd, said by telephone. “Investors are also awaiting cues from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetings on 18 December," he said.
RBI governor Raghuram Rajan may increase the repurchase rate to 8.5% next year from 7.75%, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said 21 November. He has raised borrowing costs twice since he moved to the central bank in September to fight inflation. The FOMC may begin paring an $85 billion-a-month bond buying programme at its 17-18 December meeting, according to 34% of economists surveyed 6 December by Bloomberg, up from 17% in a 8 November survey.
India’s trade deficit was $9.22 billion in November compared to $10.56 billion the previous month, government data on Wednesday showed.
The CNX Nifty index on the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd declined 0.39%, or 24.95 points, to 6,307.90.
The India VIX, a gauge of options prices on the Nifty, fell 2.44%. Bloomberg
Ami Shah and Ravindra Sonavane from Mint contributed to this story.
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