Sensex, Nifty Tumble, Close in Red; Banks, Financial Services See Over 2% Decline

The BSE Sensex and Nifty declined over a percent each on weak global markets and a massive selloff in the banking and financial names on Monday, July 19.  The BSE Sensex tanked 586 points or a little over one per cent while the NSE Nifty 50 index too fell by 1.07 per cent to end at 15,752.

"Shadowing global sell-off, Indian indices slipped succumbing to world inflation woes, FOMC meeting next week and rising COVID cases," said Vinod Nair of Geojit Financial Services.

The 30-share kitty Sensex ended the day with 24 declines and only six gains. Shares of HDFC Bank plunged more than three per cent, while those of IndusInd Bank, HDFC, and Axis Bank shed over two per cent each.

Commenting on the performance of banks, Deepak Jasani of HDFC Securities, said, "Bank stocks came under pressure on renewed fears of asset quality/rising slippages following Q1 results from Banks."

However, the losses in the broader markets were minimal with both the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices down around half a per cent. Shares of Adani group in the Midcap space declined sharply after the Finance Ministry made a statement in the parliament on SEBI investigating companies of Adani group. Adani Transmission declined more than four per cent, while Adani Power and Adani Green Energy declined over two per cent each.

Among the sectors, except for Pharma and Realty, all other sectors ended in the red. Auto, Financials, Metal, and PSU Bank declined over a per cent each.

What happened in the primary markets?

The uptrend in the primary markets continued as both Clean Science and Technology Ltd, and G R Infraprojects saw stellar debut on the exchanges. Clean Science listed at Rs 1755; +95 per cent vs issue price of Rs 900, while GR Infraprojects listed at Rs 1716; +105 per cent vs issue price of Rs 837.