Market Wrap, Dec 2: SENSEX falls 504 pts, NIFTY50 ends at 26,032 as banking stocks weigh; IndiGo top laggard

The Indian equity benchmark indices closed lower for the third consecutive session on Tuesday, December 2, dragged down by private bank and financial stocks amid continued weakness in the domestic currency.

Investors remain cautious ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s December monetary policy meeting, slated to start on Wednesday.

The Indian rupee plunged to an all-time low of 90.02 against the US dollar on Tuesday, further dampening investor sentiment. The rupee has so far this year dropped as much as 5% against the US dollar and is one of the worst-performing currencies in Asia.

According to exchange data, on Monday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth ₹1,171.31 crore, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth ₹2,558.93 crore on a net basis.

Globally, most of the Asian stocks traded higher, rebounding from the previous day's sell-off.  Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 0.12%, and South Korea's KOSPI was up 1.87%, while China's Shanghai Composite slipped 0.42%. Japan's Nikkei was also trading 0.08% higher.

On Wall Street, the main indices gave back some of last week’s rally, as Bitcoin fell again on Monday.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.5% and broke a five-day winning streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 427 points, or 0.9%, and the Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.4%.

Here are the key developments of Tuesday’s session that you need to know

As many as 3,202 stocks traded on the NSE on Tuesday. Out of this, 1,084 advanced and 2,007 declined, while 111 scrips remained unchanged.

This indicates that the market's breadth is favourable towards declines.

A total of 45 stocks hit their 52-week highs, while 180 stocks touched their one-year lows. Besides, 75 stocks hit their upper circuit limits, and 81 touched their lower circuit bands on Tuesday.

The market capitalisation of NSE-listed companies stood at ₹470.20 lakh crore by the end of the session.

The volatility index India VIX slumped 3.41% to close at 11.23 levels.

The broader market also closed lower, with the NIFTY Smallcap 100 index falling 0.55% to 17,776.45, while the NIFTY Midcap 100 dipped 0.22% to close at 60,910.45.

Among sectors, except for Nifty Pharma (0.08%), all the other gauges ended in red. Nifty Private Bank took the lead among laggards, falling 0.69%, followed by Nifty Consumer Durables (-0.44%), Nifty Oil and Gas (-0.42%), Nifty Media (-0.4%) and Nifty Metal (-0.36%).

IndiGo parent firm InterGlobe Aviation (-1.62%) was the biggest losing stock amid the fall in rupee. ICICI Bank (-1.17%), Reliance Industries (-1.14%), HDFC Bank (-1.07%) and Axis Bank (-1.05%) were the other top losers.

On the other hand, Asian Paints (3.15%), Dr Reddy’s (1.3%), Maruti Suzuki (0.92%), Bharti Airtel (0.87%) and SBI Life Insurance (0.68%) were the biggest-gaining stocks on the 50-share index.