Markets tumble on oil price spike & FII outflows, Sensex drops 548 pts

Mumbai, Oct. 12 -- Benchmark stock index Sensex fell nearly 548 points to settle below 72,000 on Monday as selling in banking, FMCG and IT shares weighed on the market amid rate-hike concerns, a spike in crude prices and unabated foreign fund outflows.

Erasing opening gains, the 30-share BSE Sensex tumbled 547.65 points, or 0.76 per cent, to settle at 71,924.68. The 50-share NSE Nifty dropped 157.10 points, or 0.70 per cent, to end at 22,363.35.

Among the 30 Sensex firms, ITC was the biggest loser, dropping by 3.23 per cent. Tech Mahindra (-3.1 per cent), Hindustan Unilever (-2.1 per cent), L&T (-1.87 per cent), SBI (-1.78 per cent) and TCS (-1.67 per cent) were among the major laggards.

Bharat Electronics, Mahindra & Mahindra, Kotak Mahindra Bank and HCL Tech were among the major winners.

Analysts said global and domestic macroeconomic concerns continued to weigh on sentiment.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, jumped 1.14 per cent to $105.8 per barrel. Foreign institutional investors offloaded equities worth Rs 3,568.90 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.

The broader market advanced, with the BSE SmallCap Select index jumping by 1.65 per cent and MidCap Select index gaining 0.66 per cent.

Among BSE sectoral indices, Hospitals was down 2.04 per cent, FMCG 1.34 per cent, PSU Bank 1.05 per cent, IT 0.68 per cent, Telecom 0.63 per cent and Energy 0.53 per cent.

Housing Finance jumped 1.86 per cent, Capital Goods 1.31 per cent, Realty 0.80 per cent, Auto 0.75 per cent, Consumer Discretionary 0.32 per cent and MidSmall Private Banks Quality Tilt 0.29 per cent.

In Asian markets, South Korea's Kospi dropped 3.65 per cent, while Shanghai's SSE Composite index also settled lower. Hang Seng index ended marginally higher. Markets in Europe were trading higher. US markets ended higher on Friday.

On Friday, the Sensex jumped 879.09 points, or 1.23 per cent, to settle at 72,472.33. The Nifty rallied 288.65 points, or 1.30 per cent, to end at 22,520.45.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.