Heavy selling was seen in the Indian stock market on Monday. Investors’ mood remained weak throughout the trading session and a sharp fall in IT stocks dragged the entire market down. By the end of trading, Sensex was down 893 points at 76,200.68, while Nifty was down 278.80 points at 23,824.10. On the Nifty-50 heatmap, most of the stocks were seen in red, which clearly showed the pressure on the market.
IT companies had the biggest role in today’s decline. Among Nifty biggest losers were Infosys, TCS and Wipro; Infosys fell by about 3.4%, TCS by 3.2% and Wipro by 3.1%. Apart from this, there was heavy selling in HCL Tech and Tech Mahindra. The increasing pressure on IT companies is due to increasing concerns about the global tech sector and selling by foreign investors, due to which investors have booked profits (profit booking) in major IT stocks.
nifty 50 heatmap
Image Source: Official website of NSE
nifty 50 heatmap
Pressure on metal and banking shares
Apart from IT, the impact of selling by investors was also seen in the metal sector. Nifty Metal index fell more than 3%. Major stocks like JSW Steel, Tata Steel and Hindalco witnessed significant weakness. The banking sector also failed to support the market; Shares of big companies like HDFC Bank, SBI, ICICI Bank and Bajaj Finance continued to fall, leading to weakness in financial stocks.
Concerns on Adani and Reliance shares also
The decline in the market was not limited to the IT sector only. Adani Enterprises fell more than 3% and Adani Ports fell more than 2%. Shares of Reliance Industries also closed down by about 1.5%. Weakness in these big stocks put further pressure on Sensex and Nifty.
Strength in pharma sector
While most sectors were under pressure, pharma stocks provided some relief. Cipla was the biggest gainer of the day and closed with a gain of over 1%. Buying was also seen in Dr Reddy’s Laboratories and Sun Pharma. Due to strength in the pharma sector, the Nifty Pharma index managed to close in the green.
Concerns grew; India VIX rises
The effect of increasing uncertainty in the market was also visible on the volatility index, India VIX. It rose nearly 8% to 13.94. A rise in the VIX is generally considered a sign of increasing fear and expectations of volatility in the markets.