Benchmark equity indices plunged in early trade on May 30, continuing to fall for the fifth day running, in line with weak global trends and unabated foreign fund outflows. The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 315.53 points to 74,187.37. The NSE Nifty tanked 102.60 points to 22,602.10.
From the Sensex firms, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Power Grid, Titan, Nestle India and Bajaj Finserv were the biggest laggards. Axis Bank, State Bank of India, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank and HDFC Bank were among the gainers.
In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Shanghai were quoting lower. Meanwhile, Wall Street ended in negative territory on May 30. “Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth ₹5,841.84 crore on May 30,” according to exchange data.
According to V. K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, equity markets are likely to see heightened volatility on June 3 and 4. “If the exit polls indicate a clear trend, which is favourable from the market perspective, buying decisions will be easy even after a spike in prices.
The last phase of polling for the ongoing general elections is scheduled for June 1 and the results will be declared on June 4. “The highly valued mid-caps and small-caps remaining resilient and the fairly valued large-caps turning weak is a short-term aberration. Long-term investors can profit from this temporary aberration,” he said.
“Besides, spike in the U.S. bond yields pushing the 10-year yield above 4.6% is a major concern,” he said, adding, “this can trigger continuation of the FII selling which will depress the prices of large-caps further”. Global oil benchmark Brent crude went lower 0.05% to $83.55 a barrel.
On May 29, the 30-share BSE Sensex declined 667.55 points or 0.89% to settle at 74,502.90. The NSE Nifty dropped 183.45 points or 0.80% to close at 22,704.70.