Mumbai: The equity markets ended the week on a negative note as a sharp drop in industrial production growth and a spike in consumer price inflation dented sentiments. Market participants feel that the rise in inflation numbers may force the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to hold rates in its next monetary policy meeting.
The Sensex slumped 300.65 points or 1.17 per cent to end the day at 25,489.57 while the Nifty closed the day at 7,814.90, down 85.50 points or 1.08 per cent.
“Some amount of profit booking coupled with an unexpected increase in consumer price inflation in April, 2016, triggered a sharp fall in indices. Higher inflation numbers triggered speculation that RBI may not cut interest rates at its policy review next month, which dampened investor sentiment,” said Mr Shreyash Devalkar, fund manager, equities, BNP Paribas Mutual Fund.
However, foreign inve-stors remained unfazed by the latest set of economic data. The provisional data released by the stock exchanges, FPIs bought shares worth Rs 1,493.88 crore. “Despite multiple attempts, Nifty 50 has just failed to move past 8,000 mark on the upside while at the same time on the downside, it continues to find good support in the range of 7,650 to 7,600 mark. Till the time this range is not breached, markets will continue to consolidate,” said Rakesh Tarway, head of research, Reliance Securities.
Metal index ended the week with deep losses down 2.5 per cent with majority of metal stocks declining sharply following weak economic data coming from China.
The broader markets remained weak with 1,521 stocks traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) ending the day in the red as compared to 1,036 stocks that advanced.
