Lagatar24 Desk
Mumbai, Feb 21: In the opening trades on Monday, the Indian equity indices fell, owing to selling pressure across all sectors. The benchmark BSE Sensex was down 578 points, or 1%, at 57,256 at 9:29 a.m., while the broader NSE Nifty was down 179 points, or 1.04 percent, at 17,097.
As a ray of positivity for a diplomatic solution to the Russian-Ukraine stalemate appeared, Asian stock markets reduced early losses. The news that US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed in principle to hold a summit on the Ukraine conflict boosted Wall Street futures.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific equities outside Japan trimmed its losses to 0.4 percent, while Japan’s Nikkei fell by half to 0.9 percent. Markets have also been concerned about the possibility of an aggressive tightening by the US Federal Reserve as inflation continues to rise.
Mid- and small-cap stocks were trading lower in India, with the Nifty Midcap 100 index falling 1.31 percent and small-cap stocks falling 2.04 percent.
On a stock-by-stock basis, the highest Nifty loss was HDFC Life, which fell 2.28 percent to Rs. 577.50. Among the laggards were Titan, Bajaj Finserv, Tata Consumer Products, UPL, and UltraTech Cement.
NTPC, PowerGrid, and Dr Reddy’s, on the other hand, were among the gainers.
On the BSE, the overall market breadth was poor, with 553 shares rising and 2,239 falling.
Titan, Larsen and Toubro (L&T), UltraTech Cement, Bajaj Finserv, Asian Paints, and Bajaj Finance suffered the highest losses on the 30-share BSE platform, with their shares falling as much as 1.79 percent.
On Friday, the Sensex fell 59 points, or 0.10 percent, to end at 57,833, while the Nifty fell 28 points, or 0.16 percent, to 17,276.
