Sensex, Nifty shed gains to close lower on tepid sentiment; Metal shares fall

The key indices  Sensex and Nifty ended the session on a negative terrain in a volatile trade, dragged by fall in midcaps amid rising concern over cross border tensions. The BSE Sensex  went down 63.61 pts at 30,301.64, while the NSE Nifty-50 index ended 16.40 pts lower at 9,369.75. Sentiment was dampened by growing Indo-Pak tensions. Moody's down-grading of credit rating on China hurt the risk appetite.
Metal shares fall after Moody's downgraded debt rating of China. Steel Authority of India falls 4.37%, Bhushan Steel dipped 3.99%, Hindustan Zinc tanked 3.7%, Hindustan Copper fell 3.2%, NMDC sunk 3.06%, Vedanta went down 3.01% among many other metal majors.
The market breadth was negative with 697 advancing shares against a decline of 2,022 shares, and there were 151 shares unchanged.
Tata Motors was the star performer today, along with Tata Motors DVR and GAIL India  on both indices, while, BHEL, L&T, Bank of Baroda and Bharti Infratel were losing sheen.

Sensex, Nifty slide in broader market sell off, pharma stocks fall

The benchmark indices ended lower  with  BSE Sensex going down 205.72 points at 30,365.25, and the NSE Nifty down 51.01 points at 9,386.15 since investors booked profit in latest outperformers.
The BSE Mid-Cap index fell 1.56 and the BSE Small-Cap index fell 1.89%. The falls in both these indices were higher than the Sensex's fall in percentage terms. However, the broad market showed weakness. On BSE. 2,123 shares declined and 597 shares advanced and 158 shares were unchanged.
Shares of public sector banks declined. Bank of India tumbles 7.32%, United Bank of India falls 5.47%, Central Bank of India dips 5.01%, Vijaya Bank  went down 5.01% among many others. Corporation Bank declined 4.87% triggered by the bank reporting higher bad loans in fourth quarter.
Pharma stocks were the biggest laggards and the Nifty Pharma Index was on track to announce its 6th sucessive session of loss, with Sun Pharma hitting a 6-month low after Taro Pharmaceutical reported weak Q4 results.
European stocks edged higher since investors accepted fresh economic data in the euro zone after waking up to a report of another suspected terrorist attack in the UK.

Sensex, Nifty edge higher as FMCG stocks rise, L&T ITC top gainers

The benchmark BSE Sensex, Nifty closed on higher note on Monday, with consumer stocks like ITC Ltd leading, due to investor’s sentiment got boosted after the govt last week finalized rates for the upcoming GST.  The  BSE Sensex closed higher by 106 pts, or 0.35 percent, to 30,571, while the NSE Nifty-50  index rose 12 pts, or 0.12 percent to 9,439.
The NSE FMCG index gained 2.9% as a record high. Shares of SBI today fell 2.5% percent as investors were watchful on the outlook of its assets quality on the merger of its 5 subsidiary banks, after it reported consolidated loss. SBI merged with the 5 associates and Bharatiya Mahila Bank on first April.
ITC LImited rose 4.8% to an all-time high, while HUL Ltd gained 2 percent. Suzlon Energy Ltd surged 8 percent  to its highest since 6 January 2016 after the renewable energy major posted a Q4 net profit compared with loss a year earlier. Tata Power Ltd  down nearly 4.3% at its lowest since February,  and was among the major losers on the NSE index.
Jet Airways, InterGlobe Aviation and  Spicejet, extended losses. Stock of Jet Airways closed at Rs 480.80/ share, down by 7.40 percent.
Metal shares ended lower. Bhushan Steel slipped 3.66%, Hindustan Copper down 2.71%, JSW Steel shed 0.85%, Hindalco Industries went down 0.84%, Vedanta Ltd down 0.61% and Tata Steel shed 0.49%, among others.