Equity markets turned sharply lower at the fag-end of the session as investors digested amendments to Finance Bill, 2023. Besides, selling in US index futures and European markets also weighed on the sentiment.
Back home, under the Bill approved by the Parliament, the debt mutual fund (Debt MF) investors will no longer receive the long-term capital gain tax benefit. They will be taxed like bank deposits. It will be applicable from April 1.
The Centre also hiked the securities transaction tax (STT) on the sale of future and option contracts by up to 25 per cent.
The S&P BSE Sensex closed 398 points, or 0.69 per cent, lower at 57,527 levels, while the Nifty50 shut shop at 16,945, down 132 points or 0.77 per cent.
The broad-based selling was led by metal, PSU banks, and realty indices, which were down over 2 per cent each. Individually, Bajaj Finserv (down 4 per cent), Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports, Hindalco, Bajaj Finance, ONGC, Hero MotoCorp, Tata Steel, Coal India. Titan, HDFC Life, Reliance Industries, M&M, JSW Steel, Maruti Suzuki, and L&T.
In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices declined around 1.4 per cent each.
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A 25 basis point (bps)-rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday failed to cheer market participants as concerns over slowing economic growth dented investor sentiment. In its fourth bi-monthly monetary policy meet, the RBI’s monetary policy committee (MPC) did cut the repo rate, as widely expected; however, a sharp reduction in the GDP growth forecast to 6.1 per cent for the financial year 2019-20 (FY20) caught investors off guard.
Benchmark indices, S&P BSE Sensex and NSE’s Nifty50, lost over 1 per cent, thus taking their losing streak to the fifth consecutive session.
The S&P BSE Sensex dropped 434 points or 1.14 per cent to settle at 37,673.31. Financial stocks led the decline with HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and Axis Bank falling up to over 3 per cent.
On the NSE, the frontline index Nifty50 ended at 11,175, down 139 points or 1.23 per cent.
On a weekly basis, Sensex shed nearly 3 per cent while Nifty50 lost 2.93 per cent.
On the sectoral front, Nifty Bank index slid nearly 700 points or 2.40 per cent to settle at 27,731.85 levels, with 10 out of 12 constituents ending in the red. Nifty IT index was the only sectoral index on the NSE that ended in the green. The Nifty IT index ended at 15,340.30, up 62 points or 0.41 per cent.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE MidCap index lost 131 points or 0.94 per cent to settle at 13,713.79 levels, while the S&P BSE SmallCap index closed at 12,809, down 102 points or 0.79 per cent.
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