Indian markets continued to fall in early trade for the second day on Monday on the back of selling pressure seen across board. And concerns over rising Covid-19 cases continue to weigh on investors' sentiment. Banking, auto, financials, energy and metal stocks were bleeding.
The 30-share benchmark index, BSE Sensex opened with a decline of 634.67 points or 1.28% at 48,956.65, while the broad based NSE Nifty started with a fall of 190.20 points or 1.28%, at 14,644.65.
At 10.52 a.m., the Sensex was trading down 1,263.91 points or 2.55% at 48,327.41 with 28 components falling. Meanwhile, the Nifty was trading lower by 370.55 points or 2.5% at 14,464.30 with 49 components falling.
HDFC Bank contributed fall of 98.84 points in the Sensex. It was followed by Larsen & Toubro (90.46 points), Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (78.02 points), Mahindra & Mahindra (47.14 points) and Bharti Airtel (40.17 points).
All shares in the Sensex pack were trading in deep red. Indusind Bank (7.37%), State Bank Of India (6.56%), Bajaj Finance (6.24%), M&M (4.40%), Axis Bank (3.94%) and Bajaj Finserv (3.89%) were the biggest losers.Market breadth was negative with 461 advances against 2,173 declines.Commenting on the market outlook, Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services opined, "Technically, Nifty formed a Doji candle with long lower shadow on weekly while a small Bearish candle on daily scale indicating buying at lower zones. Now, it has to decisively cross and hold above 14,880 zone for an up move towards 15,000 and 15,100 zones while on the downside support exists at 14,750 and 14,650 levels. India VIX fell down by 2.58% from 20.31 to 19.78 levels. Lower volatility and a hold below 20 zones could continue to keep buy on declines strategy in the market."
Going ahead, Indian markets are likely to track global cues along with the weakening rupee which has depreciated more than 2%. Lot of stock specific action is likely to be witnessed as the earnings season would kick start from next week, he added.
Khemka expects Q4 to be another strong quarter, aided by a deflated base of 4QFY20 and healthy demand recovery for the large part of 4QFY21. "Performance is expected to be healthy despite headwinds of commodity cost inflation in various sectors. However, concerns over the fast-spreading 2nd wave of Covid in India along with vaccine supply crunch continues would keep the markets volatile. Investors would also keep an eye on India's CPI data this week."
