Sensex Down Over 100 Points, Nifty Below 10,550
The domestic equity markets slipped in trade on Monday ahead of a key meeting of the American central bank amid uncertainty around the Sino-US trade war. At 1:13 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex traded at 34,900.65, down 111 points or 0.32 per cent and the broader Nifty50 was at 10,508.45, with a loss of 44.55 points or 0.42 per cent. Losing between 3.04 per cent and 5.86 per cent, the top five Nifty laggards were Indiabulls Housing Finance, Indian Oil Corporation, NTPC, Hindustan Petroleum and IndusInd Bank.
Thirty two Nifty stocks traded with losses.
In the sectoral landscape, losses were led by FMCG and financial stocks. PSU banks, however, bucked the negative trend.
"After strong gains last week, we may be seeing some consolidation this week," Deepak Jasani, head of retail research at HDFC Securities, was quoted as saying in a report by news agency Reuters
"The Fed (Federal Reserve) is also meeting later this week, which will be watched for its outlook on interest rates and impact on global interest rate trajectory. Ahead of that, markets will be a little cautious - they may not give up a large portion of last week's gains, but they aren't likely to build on previous gains either," Jasani added.
Markets are also watching the Iranian sanctions by United States, to see whether India will get an exemption, and in which form, he said.
In Asian markets, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 1.4 per cent, slipping back towards last week's 1-1/2 year trough of 505.61 points.
On Friday, foreign portfolio investors sold net shares of Rs 196.9 crore, according to provisional NSE data. In the last session, Sensex closed at 35,011.65 and Nifty at 10,553.