Domestic equity benchmarks declined sharply in today's session after the International Monetary Fund downgraded India's growth forecast to 7.3 per cent for 2019.
The SP BSE Sensex fell as much as 397 points to touch intraday low of 38,542.28 and the NSE Nifty 50 index dropped as much as 100 points to intraday low of 11,571.75.
IMF's cut in growth outlook comes after ADB and the Reserve Bank of India cut India's economic growth outlook to 7.2 per cent for 2019 earlier this month.The SP BSE Sensex slumped 0.91 per cent or 354 points to end at 38,585 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index fell 0.75 per cent or 88 points to shut shop at 11,584.RBI had cut economic growth outlook citing probability of El Nino effects on monsoon rains and uncertain global economic outlook."Economic growth concerns along with caution ahead of the March quarter earnings season is leading to investors stay on the side-lines," AK Prabhakar, head of research at IDBI Capital Markets told TheIndianSubcontinent over phone.Nifty has been consolidating in a narrow range of 11,550-11,700 since the past few trading session.
In the short term, breach of 11550 is expected to limit the upsides for the April series and push the index towards 11,300-11,350 levels, Sahaj Agrawal of Kotak Securities said.He advises accumulating on meaningful corrections for the larger trend which remains extremely strong.Eight of 11 sector gauges compiled by National Stock Exchange ended lower led by the Nifty Financial Services Index's 1.13 per cent decline.
Bank, PSU Bank, Private Bank, Metal and IT indexes also declined between 0.8 and 1 per cent each.On the flipside, Nifty Realty Index was top gainer, up 1.13 per cent.
Pharma and Auto sector gauges also closed higher on the NSE.Mid- and small-cap shares ended on a mixed note as the Nifty Midcap 100 Index fell 0.28 per cent while the Nifty Smallcap 100 Index advanced 0.32 per cent.Bharti Airtel, Hindalco, Asian Paints, TCS, UPL, HDF Bank, HDFC, GAIL, HCL Technologies and Tata Steel were also among the losers.On the other hand, Tata Motors, Wipro, Cipla, Adani Ports, Hindustan Unilever, Bharat Petroleum, Indian Oil and Coal India were among the gainers.The overall market breadth was negative as 1,402 shares closed lower while 1,140 ended higher on the BSE.Get the latest election news, live updates and election schedule for Lok Sabha Elections 2019 on TheIndianSubcontinent.com/elections.
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