Sensex slips 453 points, Nifty at 16,873; realty cracks

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After a sharp sell-off in Friday’s session, domestic benchmark equity indices benchmark indices tried for a pullback rally on Monday but was sold off into in early trade on fears of the Omicron variant of coronavirus may keep the upside limited. In early trades, Sensex slipped 453 points or 0.79% at 56,653 while the Nifty was quoting at 16,873 declining by 152 points or 0.90%.

“Even though the benchmark indices have corrected around 7%, valuations have not become attractive and, therefore, Investors may adopt a wait and watch approach. Risk-averse investors can move to defensives like pharma and FMCG which will be resilient in these difficult times. Investors with high risk appetite can consider calibrated buying in high-quality banking and IT stocks,” VK Vijayakumar, Cheif Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Top gainers & losers

Sectoral strand

Sectorally all indices were trading in the red. Nifty Realty index tanked 2.83%, followed by Nifty PSU Bank plunged 2.62% and the Nifty Media index plummeted 2.30%. Whereas Nifty Bank, Nifty Auto, Nifty FMCG, Nifty IT and Nifty Metal indices were down in the range of 1.3-1.6%.

The volatility gauge spiked up by 7.73% to 22.41 levels.

Broader markets

Pain in the broader markets was much severe as the BSE MidCap index sinks 246 points or 0.99% to 24,600 while the BSE SmallCap index was trading at 27,435 diving 636 points or 2.27%.

The market breadth was negative as 2,123 shares declined while 675 advanced and 119 remained unchanged.

Global market

Overseas, Asian stocks largely fell in Monday trade with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slipping about 0.3 per cent. Japan’s Nikkei 225 declined about 1 per cent earlier but was last trading around 0.2 per cent lower. The Topix index also saw a partial recovery, last dipping 0.59 per cent lower after falling more than 1 per cent earlier. South Korea’s Kospi shed 0.39 per cent.

Shares in Australia also slipped as the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.17 per cent. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.1 per cent lower.

On the other hand, U.S. equity futures, crude oil and Treasury yields climbed as traders tried to calibrate the possible impact of the omicron coronavirus strain on global economic reopening.