Sensex ends 1,189 points lower, Nifty below 16,650 as Omicron fears roil global markets

Benchmark indices tumbled in the first trading session of this week as rising Omicron cases posed a threat to the global economic recovery.

Sensex slumped 1189 points to end at 55,822 and Nifty fell 371 points to 16,613.Tata Steel , IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finance, SBI, HDFC Bank and NTPC were the top  Sensex losers, falling up to 5.21 per cent.

HUL and Dr Reddy's were the only Sensex gainers, rising up to 1.64%. Market cap of BSE-listed firms fell to Rs 252.49 lakh crore.

Pritesh Mehta, Lead Technical Analyst- Institutional Equities, at YES Securities said, "The structure of the benchmark indices has changed since November 2021. It is no longer a Buy on Dip market. With Nifty underperforming golds and bonds from the third week of October, recovery moves have been short-lived. Even within sectoral indices; except IT, relative strength is amiss. Breadth of broader markets (i.e. in Nifty midcap 100, smallcaps 100 & 500 indices) is diminishing.

In Monday's session, Nifty fell below the low marked on November 29th November 2021, implying further weakness. On P&F chart, series of double bottom sell is seen & a bull trap reversal. It is continuously moving below 10-column average with downside vertical target suggesting a move towards 16000 zone."

BSE midcap and smallcap indices fell 839 points and 940 points, respectively.

On the sectoral front, banking shares led the losses with BSE bankex losing 1298 points to 39,189.

BSE capital goods and consumer durables indices fell 849 points and BSE consumer durables indices slumped 849 and 922 points , respectively. All 19 BSE sectoral indices ended in the red.

The market breadth was negative with 741 shares ending higher against 2,696 stocks in the red. 123 shares were unchanged.

Benchmark indices ended the session on a negative note on Friday amid an across-the-board selloff and a negative trend in the global markets. Sensex closed 889.40 points or 1.54 per cent lower at 57,011 and Nifty plunged 263.20 points or 1.53 per cent to 16,985.20.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 2,069.90 crore on December 17, and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 1,478.52 crore, as per provisional data available on NSE.

Global markets

Asian stock markets followed Wall Street lower amid concerns over coronavirus' latest variant and tighter Federal Reserve policy. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 closed 11 points lower at 7,292. Nikkei ended 607 points lower at 27,937 and Shanghai Composite fell 38 points to 3,594. Hang Seng index fell 447 points to 22,744.

 In Europe, indices were trading deep in the red. FTSE declined 80 points to 7,191 and DAX fell 287 points to 15,242. CAC lost 80 points to 6,849.

 On Wall Street, the S&P 500 ended 48 points lower at 4,620, the Nasdaq lost 10 points to 15,169 and the Dow Jones fell 532 points to 35,365.