Sensex drops 241 points; Nifty falls for seventh day on selling in IT, oil shares

Benchmark Sensex and Nifty fell for the seventh consecutive session amid foreign fund outflows and weak global leads.

Benchmark Sensex declined by 241 points while broader Nifty fell for the seventh session in a row on Monday (November 18, 2024) following a sell-off in IT and oil shares amid unabated foreign fund outflows and weak leads from the U.S. markets.

The 30-share BSE Sensex dropped by 241.30 points or 0.31% to settle at 77,339.01, registering its fourth day of decline. During the day, it fell 615.25 points or 0.79% to 76,965.06. Falling for the seventh day in a row, the NSE Nifty dipped 78.90 points or 0.34% to 23,453.80.

From the 30-share Sensex pack, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, NTPC, HCL Technologies, Axis Bank, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Finserv, Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank and Reliance Industries were the major laggards.

Tata Steel, Hindustan Unilever, Mahindra & Mahindra, Nestle and State Bank of India were among the gainers.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth ₹1,849.87 crore on Thursday (November 14, 2024), according to exchange data. Foreign investors have pulled out ₹22,420 crore from the Indian equity markets so far this month, owing to high domestic stock valuations, increasing allocations to China, and the rising U.S. dollar as well as Treasury yields.

With this sell-off, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) have recorded a total outflow of ₹15,827 crore in 2024 so far. Equity markets were closed on Friday (November 15, 2024) for Guru Nanak Jayanti.

"Consolidation continued in the market; a slowdown in earnings growth and a weak Rupee owing to inflation impacted the sentiment. IT stocks reacted negatively today owing to a reduced expectation of a Fed rate cut in December, which may pose a delay in spending in the BFSI segment," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services, said. The BSE smallcap index declined 0.69% and midcap index dipped 0.17%.