Mumbai, India’s benchmark equity indices surrendered the opening gains to settle about 1 per cent lower, as global crude oil price resumed its uptrend, fanning inflation concerns.
The Brent crude price, a global barometer, rose to $70.97 a barrel, pushing the rupee lower.
The rupee closed the session lower at Rs 72.89 to a US dollar, from 72.49 on Friday.
“Oil prices will be closely watched following a warning by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies about surging oil output that is set to leave the crude market over-supplied in 2019,” said Abhijeet Dey, Senior Fund Manager-Equities, BNP Paribas Mutual Fund.
India imports about 80 per cent of its crude oil requirements, and a rise in prices will potentially widen its current account gap.
The S&P BSE Sensex fell 345.56 points or 0.98 per cent to end at 34,812.99. It had opened at 35,287.49, touching an intra-day high of 35,333.22 and a low of 34,756.80.
The NSE Nifty closed 103 points lower, or 0.97 per cent, at 10,482.20.
“Technically, the short-term trend of the Nifty is down and some more weakness
is likely in the next 1-2 sessions,” HDFC Securities’ Retail Research Head Deepak Jasani said.
“There is a possibility of an emergence of buying interest from the lower levels during mid-to-latter part of this week. Immediate support is placed at 10,442 and then at 10,396, while 10,550 could offer resistance,” he added.
Except for the IT and Teck sectors on the BSE, others like auto, energy, banking and finance counters faced heavy selling pressure.
The broader markets like the S&P BSE MidCap index declined 0.91 per cent, while the S&P BSE SmallCap index fell 0.83 per cent.
The market breadth was negative, with an advances to declines ratio of 0.77.
Provisional data with the exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors bought stocks worth Rs 832.15 crore on Monday while the domestic institutional investors sold scrips worth Rs 1,073.84 crore.
The top gainers on the Sensex were led by Tata Steel, up 1.67 per cent at Rs 582.90; Kotak Mahindra Bank, up 1.59 per cent at Rs 1,155.90; Infosys, up 0.45 per cent at Rs 664.45; TCS, up 0.32 per cent at Rs 1,915.90; and Larsen & Tubro, up 0.02 per cent at Rs 1,367 a share.
The laggards were Tata Motors down 4.84 per cent at Rs 185.95; Tata Motors (DVR), down 4.19 per cent at Rs 100.60; Hero MotoCorp, down 3.82 per cent at Rs 2,837.50; Power Grid, down 2.87 per cent at Rs 186, and Maruti Suzuki down 2.64 per cent at Rs 7,073.90 per share.