Volatile trade drags mkts into red

Mumbai: Equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty on Monday faced high volatility and closed with losses as investors turned cautious ahead of the start of corporate earnings season and polling for the general elections.

The BSE gauge Sensex ended lower by 161.70 points at 38,700.53, while the NSE Nifty lost 61.45 points to settle the day at 11,604.50. Losses mainly in financial, metal and energy stocks dragged the Sensex into the red.

Oil stocks came under pressure due to constant rise in global crude oil prices. International benchmark Brent was trading at 70.81 per barrel, up 0.67 per cent. Of the 30 Sensex shares, 20 witnessed losses and 10 saw gains.

The market breadth was tilted in favour of sellers as 1,534 shares fell and 987 advanced on the BSE. In line with Sensex, the broader indices also saw hefty losses. Large cap index tumbled 0.79 per cent, midcap 0.87 per cent and smallcap 0.57 per cent.

Sectorally, among the worst performers were realty, losing 2.67 per cent, followed by energy 1.67 per cent, oil and gas 1.47 per cent and finance 0.8 per cent. Bucking the overall trend, BSE IT rose 0.8 per cent and Teck gained 0.6 per cent.

Of the 19 sectoral indices, 15 ended in the red and 4 closed in the green. In broader market, smallcap and midcap indices have outperformed the benchmark Sensex. BSE smallcap gained 1 per cent, midcap climbed 1.5 per cent and largecap advanced 1 per cent.

The country's top two software exporters TCS and Infosys will announce their quarterly earnings on Friday. Lok Sabha elections will begin on April 11 and will be held over seven phases followed by counting of votes on May 23.

Meanwhile, the Indian rupee has started feeling the heat of rising crude prices and was trading 38 paise lower at 69.61 (intra-day) to the US dollar. Besides, the strengthening US dollar on account of a rebound in payrolls data further impacted rupee sentiment.

Asian markets closed mixed on Monday, helped by better-than-expected US jobs data and signs of progress in US-China trade talks. In Europe, major market indices were trading mostly lower on Monday.