Stocks kicked off the week on a muted note with the benchmark Sensex falling more than 384 points on tepid global cues even as cautious investors awaited interest rate decisions of the US Federal Reserve, Bank of Japan (BoJ) and the People’s Bank of China (PBOC).
Markets in both Europe and Asia were largely in the red with France’s CAC trading lower 0.91 per cent, DAX 0.40 per cent and the FTSE 0.36 per cent.
In Asia, the data was not encouraging with key indices falling anywhere between 0.03 per cent and 0.88 per cent.
Analysts said investors were biding time, waiting for the interest rate calls of the three central banks.
While the US central bank is forecast to cut borrowing costs 25 basis points on Wednesday, the BoJ will announce its decision the next day, followed by the PBOC’s decision on Friday. The BoJ is largely expected to hold rates.
On the BSE, the 30-share gauge opened lower at 82000.31 and slipped 581.84 points to the day’s low of 81551.28.
It gave up 384.55 points to settle at 81748.57. The NSE Nifty lost 100.05 points or 0.40 per cent to end at 24668.25.
Titan was the top loser in the Sensex pack falling 2.04 per cent. It was followed by Adani Ports, TCS, UltraTech Cement, NTPC and Bharti Airtel which fell up to 1.37 per cent.
Only six stocks ended in the green with IndusInd Bank leading this group as its shares rose 1.28 per cent.
Siddhartha Khemka, head — research, Wealth Management, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said metal stocks were under pressure on Monday because of weak global prices and concerns over the future of US-China trade.
He said that weaker-than-expected retail sales data from China, a key consumer of metals, added to fears of slowing demand. IT stocks also declined with the Nifty IT shedding 0.9 per cent on account of profit booking.
``Investors also await the US manufacturing and services PMI to be released later today, followed by US retail sales data on Tuesday. There is heightened action in the primary markets with five IPO listings and seven new IPOs opening for subscription this week. We expect markets to consolidate within a broad range, as sentiments remain cautious ahead of US Fed and Bank of Japan’s interest rate decision this week.’’ he added.
US services sector activity slowed in November after posting big gains in recent months but remained above levels consistent with solid economic growth in the fourth quarter.
At the forex markets, the rupee settled at 84.86 against the dollar after opening at 84.83. The domestic currency was under pressure on account of weak equity markets and a firm greenback overseas.
“Market participants observed heightened volatility with the week packed with significant global economic events, including the Fed’s policy announcement, and monetary policy decisions from BoJ and China. The rupee’s trading range is expected to remain between 84.75 and 85.00,” Jateen Trivedi, VP research analyst — commodity and currency, LKP Securities, said.
