The Indian stock market on Monday continued its decline for the second consecutive session, with the Sensex plunging over 1,600 points and the Nifty slipping below the 22,350 mark.
The market witnessed broad-based selling, led by banking stocks after the Reserve Bank of India tightened limits on banks’ dollar positions.
At close, the Sensex was down 1,635.67 points, or 2.22 per cent, at 71,947.55, while the Nifty fell 488.20 points, or 2.14 per cent, to 22,331.40.
The Nifty Midcap and Smallcap indices shed around 2.6 per cent each. The market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies declined to Rs 412.59 lakh crore from Friday’s Rs 422.15 lakh crore.
All sectors ended in the red. Auto, FMCG, consumer durables, capital goods, telecom, realty, private banks, and PSU banks declined in the range of 2–4 per cent.
On the Nifty, major losers included Bajaj Finance, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finserv, State Bank of India, and InterGlobe Aviation, while gainers were Hindalco Industries, Coal India, ONGC, and Power Grid Corporation of India.
Nearly 1,500 stocks touched their 52-week lows on the BSE. These included Embassy Developments, Kirloskar Brothers, Jubilant FoodWorks, Aegis Vopak Terminals, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Aditya Birla Lifestyle Brands, Newgen Software, Titagarh Rail Systems, CE Info Systems, Central Bank of India, EIH, Deepak Nitrite, Amara Raja, AAVAS Financiers, Mastek, Sterling and Wilson, Cochin Shipyard, Blue Jet, ICICI Prudential, UCO Bank, among others.
The Indian rupee breached the 95 mark for the first time, hitting a record low of 95.12 against the US dollar.
The Nifty Bank index declined nearly 4 per cent after the RBI directed banks to cap their net open rupee positions in the foreign exchange market at $100 million. All 14 constituents of the Bank Nifty index settled in the red.
Punjab National Bank was the top laggard, declining 4.35 per cent, followed by AU Small Finance Bank, which fell 4.7 per cent. IndusInd Bank and Union Bank of India declined 4.06 per cent and 4.15 per cent, respectively.
Key reasons behind the market decline included ongoing West Asia tensions, rising crude oil prices, and continued foreign institutional investor (FII) outflows.
The stock market will remain shut on March 31 (Tuesday) on account of Shri Mahavir Jayanti.