Sensex cracks over 350 pts, Nifty below 10,800; Rupee depreciates by 33 paise

According to brokers, domestic investor sentiment took a beating after the Pakistan Army on Tuesday alleged that the Indian Air Force violated the Line of Control (LoC) in Muzafarabad sector.

The allegation came amid heightened tension between India and Pakistan after the February 14 suicide attack by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad terror group that killed 40 CRPF soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district.

Meanwhile, the rupee depreciated 33 paise to 71.30 against the US dollar in early trade Tuesday at the forex market on fresh demand for the US currency from importers.

The laggards that dragged the key indices include Yes Bank, Hero MotoCorp, Tata Steel, Vedanta, Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank, SBI, RIL, M&M, Kotak Bank, Bajaj Finance, Infosys, NTPC, HDFC, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Auto, IndusInd Bank, L&T, PowerGrid, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, Asian Paint, ITC and ONGC, falling by up to 2.38 per cent.

On the other hand, TCS, HUL and Tata Motors rose up to 0.93 per cent.

Most of the BSE sectoral indices were trading in the red, led by banking, power, PSU, realty and IT stocks with losses up to 0.90 per cent.

Fresh round of selling by domestic institutional investors (DIIs) also dampened market sentiment here, brokers said.

Meanwhile, DIIs sold shares worth Rs 1,764.4 crore, while foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net of Rs 2,134.35 crore on Monday, provisional data showed.

In the Asian region, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 0.49 per cent, Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.20 per cent, Taiwan shed 0.14 per cent, Korea’s Kospi shed 0.19 per cent and Singapore Straits Times was down 0.27 per cent in late morning trade Tuesday.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average, however, ended 0.23 per cent higher on Monday.