In a turbulent trading session on Monday, Indian market benchmarks finished lower, pulled down by big losses in metal stocks. During today's session, the domestic indices bounced between gains and losses before closing in the red. The government has slapped heavy export tariffs on key steel-making raw materials such as iron ore and pellets. The tariff on the export of iron ores and concentrates has been increased from 30% to 50%. A 45 percent duty has been imposed on iron pellets.
The 30-share BSE Sensex dropped 38 points, or 0.07 percent, to 54,289, while the wider NSE Nifty sank 51 points, or 0.32 percent, to 16,215. Mid- and small-cap stocks finished down, with the Nifty Midcap 100 down 0.35 percent and the small-cap index down 0.80 percent.
The National Stock Exchange's 15 sector indexes all ended up in negative territory. The Nifty Metal sub-index underperformed the platform by as much as 8.14 percent. Metals stocks plummeted, wiping out advances in automobile and IT stocks.
JSW Steel was the biggest loser on the Nifty, falling 13.21% to Rs. 547.75. The losers included Tata Steel, Divi's Lab, ONGC, and Hindalco. Tata Steel, UltraTech Cement, ITC. PowerGrid, HDFC finance, HDFC Bank, HCL Tech, Reliance Industries, SBI, and Bharti Airtel were among the worst performers on the 30-share BSE index.
LIC shares also lost 1.14 percent today, closing at Rs. 816.85. Last week, LIC made a lacklustre debut on the stock exchanges, debuting at an 8.62 percent discount to its issue price of Rs. 949. M&M, Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints, L&T, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, TCS, Nestle India, Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank, Titan, Dr Reddy's, and NTPC, on the other hand, finished in the green.
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