The Sensex slipped below 33,000 points and the Nifty50 fell below 10,100 on Monday as the week began with a wider current account deficit for India and amid prospects of the government facing its first no-confidence motion in Parliament.
The BSE Sensex closed at 32,923.12, down by 252.88 points since Friday’s close, and the National Stock Exchange’s Nifty50 ended 100.9 points lower at 10,094.25.
This was the fifth straight session of decline in the share indices. On Friday, the indices suffered the biggest single-day fall in over a month after the Telugu Desam Party, an alliance partner of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, quit the coalition.
Meanwhile, data released after market hours on Friday showed that India’s current account deficit in October-December 2017 widened sharply from the same quarter in 2016. The deficit was 2% of the Gross Domestic Product, against 1.4% a year ago.
Only six of 31 stocks on the Sensex traded high on Monday. Power Grid Corporation of India, NTPC, Larsen and Tourbo, Maruti Suzuki and Hindustan Unilever were the top gainers on both indices.
Tata Steel, Bharti Airtel, Coal India, Wipro and Yes Bank declined the most on Sensex, and the top losers on Nifty 50 were HCL Technologies, Tata Steel, Bharti Airtel, Tech Mahindra and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited.
The rupee was at 65.03 to a dollar, against 64.94 at previous close.
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