Equity markets in India continued their losing streak for the fifth consecutive day on Monday. The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 1,546 points to end at 57,492, while the 50-share NSE Nifty closed at 17,149 after losing 468 points.
Sensex has lost over 2,500 points in four trading sessions last week, according to Mint.
Tata Steel and Bajaj Finance performed poorly on the Sensex bracket as their stocks fell by nearly 6%.
JSW Steel was sustained losses on the Nifty index as its stocks fell by 6.92% to Rs 620.15, according to NDTV. Shares of Zomato, Paytm and Nykaa crashed by 20%, 4.68% and 12.55% respectively.
All the sector indices on Nifty ended lower compared to Friday’s trading session.
The downturn in the markets is largely due to a rise in treasury yields in the United States and concerns that the country’s Federal Reserve will increase key interest rates. Higher US yields and interest rate hikes tend to make investments in equities in emerging markets like India less attractive, leading to an outflow of foreign funds.
“The broad-based selling we saw last week has spilled over and only after the Fed [Federal Reserve] meeting this week, we will be able to get some clarity on further moves,” Anita Gandhi, director at financial services firm Arihant Capital Markets, told Reuters.
Moreover, the trading pattern typically becomes volatile in weeks leading to the Union Budget in anticipation of the finance minister’s announcements. The Union Budget will be presented on February 1.
“Most stocks that went public recently are very expensive and a much needed correction is now underway,” Gandhi told Reuters.
Ravi Singhal, vice-chairman at brokerage firm GCL Securities, said that the weak performance of the markets was due to foreign portfolio investors and foreign institutional investors taking out money from markets in India, according to NDTV. “If we look at the data, FIIs have sold out equities worth Rs 11,000 crore in the last three sessions last week,” he said.
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