Stock Market: Sensex Dips Marginally By 37 Points, Nifty Ends At 16,215 Amid Volatility; Tata Steel Tanks Over 12%

Stock update: On the upside, Maruti Suzuki, M&M, HUL, L&T, Apollo Hospitals, Asian Paints, and Hero MotoCorp were the gainers, rising in the range of 1.5 per cent to 4 per cent

New Delhi: The two key equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, on Monday settled in the red after erasing gains during the fag-end of the session amid high volatility.

The domestic indices fluctuated between gains and losses throughout the session before closing in the negative zone.

The 30-share BSE Sensex ended day’s trade at 54,288, down 37 points, while the broader NSE Nifty moved 51 points down to settle at 16,215.

In the broader markets, midcap and smallcap shares finished on a weak note as Nifty Midcap 100 shed 0.35 per cent and smallcap slipped 0.80 per cent.

On NSE, 13 out of the 15 sector gauges settled in the red. Sub-index Nifty Metal underperformed the platform by falling as much as 8.14 per cent. The plunge in metal stocks erased gains in automobile and information technology.

JSW Steel and Tata Steel were the worst hit stocks today as they plunged 13 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively. The sharp knock came after he government levied export duty on 11 iron and steel intermediates and key steel products. The government levied export duty of 15 per cent on almost all the major steel products (including stainless steel).

Besides, Divis Labs, Hindalco, ONGC, Ultratech Cement, ITC, Adani Ports, UPl, Grasim, and HDFC Bank were the other laggards, down between 1 per cent and 10 per cent.

On the upside, Maruti Suzuki, M&M, HUL, L&T, Apollo Hospitals, Asian Paints, and Hero MotoCorp were the gainers, rising in the range of 1.5 per cent to 4 per cent.

"Nifty once again gave up the intra day gains and ended in the negative. Metals stocks sold off post the levy of export duties over the weekend on iron ore and some steel intermediates," said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities.

In the previous trading on Friday, the BSE Sensex rallied 1,534 points (2.91 per cent) to settle at 54,326, while the NSE Nifty jumped 456 points (2.89 per cent) to end at 16,266.

Meanwhile, Asian markets in Shanghai, Seoul, and Tokyo ended higher, while Hong Kong settled lower.

Equity exchanges in Europe were trading mostly higher in the afternoon session. Stock markets in the US had ended on a mixed note on Friday.

International oil benchmark Brent crude gained 1.15 per cent to $113.8 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors offloaded shares worth Rs 1,265.41 crore on Friday, as per stock exchange data.