Foreign fund outflows and profit booking pull equity markets lower

MUMBAI: Foreign fund outflows, along with profit booking, pulled the Indian benchmark equity indices lower for the third straight session on Monday.

Investors were seen cautious ahead of monthly F&O expiry as well as pre-budget speculations, while hefty allocation towards IPOs' subscription took away some funds from the market.

Consequently, the S&P BSE Sensex fell 530.95 points, or 1.09 per cent, to close at 48,347.59 from its previous close.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange closed at 14,238.90, lower by 133 points, or 0.93 per cent, from its previous close.

Globally, Asian shares closed on a mixed note in Monday's trade amid some hopes for recovering economies slammed by the pandemic, as market attention turned to upcoming company earnings.

Stocks in Europe were impacted by rumours of tighter border restrictions and extended lockdowns to keep the new Covid-19 variant at bay.

On the domestic front, Nifty was dragged by the fall in energy and IT stocks.

Among sectors, pharma was the main gainer while IT, realty and auto were the main losers.

In terms of market heavyweight, Reliance Industries fell 5.6 per cent, its biggest single-day fall seen in stock in nearly three months.

"Nifty has fallen for the third consecutive session. This has happened after about 4 months. Poor advance decline ratio hints at broader profit taking," said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities.

"Pre-budget nervousness has resulted in some unloading. Locking up of large sums in the recent IPOs have also led to this sell-off. 14,123-14,148 is the next support band for the Nifty."

Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services. said: "Technically, Nifty has started to form lower top - lower bottom and is witnessing profit booking declines from three sessions."

"Going ahead, markets may continue to remain highly volatile ahead of Monthly expiry and Union Budget 2021. The ongoing earning season further adds to the volatility. The Fed monetary policy is also due this week which would be the first one post newly inaugurated US President and thus would hold lot more significance."

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said: "Indian markets witnessed a highly volatile trade and closed in red due to weak global market and reports of Indo-China border tension. The downside was equally contributed by all the sectors except pharma which traded in green."

"Policy decisions of the US Fed meeting which will commence tomorrow will drive the global market in the coming days. We have seen Indian markets being highly volatile these days and this trend is expected to continue this week as we inch closer to the Union Budget." (IANS)

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