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Sensex, Nifty Close 1% Lower Tracking Global Selloff
25 Oct 2018, 03:45 PM IST 
Investors were jittery ahead of the expiry of derivatives contracts
- Top laggards on the 50-scrip Nifty index included Bharti Airtel, Indiabulls Housing Finance, Vedanta, Hindalco, ONGC and Tata Motors, finishing between 2.8 per cent and 6.28 per cent lower. HDFC or Housing Development Finance Corporation, finishing 2 per cent lower, was the biggest drag on the Nifty.
- Caution prevailed among investors ahead of the expiry of derivatives (futures & options) contracts for the month of September by the end of the session.
- A series of defaults at major non-banking financial company IL&FS sparked concerns of a liquidity crunch in the sector, and have soured trading sentiment. Analysts expect some more correction going forward.
- "We are in a bear phase of the market... Next three months will be a very big crisis time for India," AK Prabhakar, head of research, IDBI Capital Markets, told NDTV. "This is a healthy correction for the markets and will continue. The IL&FS problem has come to the fore."
- The Nifty Financial Services index declined 1.2 per cent. Shares of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) also took a beating. Indiabulls Housing Finance, Dewan Housing Finance and Repco Home Finance declined fell 5.6 per cent 3.1 per cent and 2.5 per cent respectively.
- Shares in telecom major Bharti Airtel ended 6.3 per cent lower, ahead of release of its earnings for the July-September quarter later in the day.
- On the other hand, Shares in InterGlobe Aviation, owner of airline IndiGo, rose 8.2 per cent, a day after the company posted its first ever quarterly loss since its market debut in 2015.
- Other Asian equities plunged after tech stocks caused the largest daily decline on Wall Street since 2011 in the previous session, wiping out all its gains for the year. Factors ranging from faster rate hikes in the United States to an ongoing Sino-US trade war that threatens to hurt world growth have continued to make investors jittery.
- "The fall in the US market is likely a result of fears around slowing economic activity in the United States," news agency Reuters quoted Sunil Sharma, chief investment officer with Sanctum Wealth Management, as saying.
- Meanwhile, net sale of equities by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) stood at Rs 2,046.54 crore on Wednesday while net purchases by domestic institutional investors were at Rs 1,873.51 crore, provisional data from the NSE showed.
(With agency inputs)
