Monday blues on Dalal Street: Nifty, Sensex close in the red after record-breaking rally

• Stock markets are down in anticipation of the US Fed meeting later this week.
• Investor confidence was impacted by crude supply cuts, soft rural demand and more experts say.
• Profit booking was seen in private banking stocks while PSU banks gained between 12-20%.

The stock markets caught the Monday blues and broke an 11-session rally as both the benchmark indices closed in the red ahead of the US Fed meeting later this week.

The benchmark indices were down by around 0.3% with Sensex shedding 241 points to 67,596 and Nifty down by 59 points to 20,133. Markets are expecting to keep moving sideways for the next few sessions, in anticipation of the US Fed meeting on September 19-20, experts say.

"The investor's confidence was also impacted by the expectations of a demand resurgence in China, combined with crude supply cuts. With the Fed rate hike fears back on the cards, as reflected in the elevated US bond yields, the markets await clarification from major central banks," said Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services.

There are more macro factors affecting the markets like rising crude oil prices, impact of uncertain monsoons and soft rural demand. Net FII inflows have also been in the red in September.

“It's important to remain slightly conservative as corrections can be swift. Favoring large cap and larger midcap names is suggested, while profit-taking in stocks (especially momentum ones) that have surged recently may be prudent,” said Milind Muchhala, executive director of Julius Baer India, a wealth management firm.

PSU banks shine

Banking and financial services stocks were on a downtrend as Nifty Bank was down by 0.5%, and Nifty Financial Services was down by 0.6% – on account of profit booking.

Nifty PSU Bank however was an outlier as it gained 3.39% unlike most other indices that ended in the red on Monday. Indian Overseas Bank, UCO Bank, Punjab and Sind Bank and Central Bank gained anywhere between 12-20% in trade today.

"The Bank Nifty index experienced profit booking at higher levels and struggled to surpass the 46300 mark. The PSU bank sector emerged as a clear outperformer in the index. This outperformance is expected to continue in the near term, potentially driven by positive sentiment or specific factors affecting PSU banks,” said Kunal Shah, Senior Technical & Derivative analyst at LKP Securities.

Auto and FMCG stocks also traded in the green, and investors were on consumer durables stocks too.

Power Grid, Titan, HDFC Life, M&M and BPCL were the top gainers in the Nifty50 pack while Hindalco, HDFC Bank, Adani Ports, Dr Reddy’s and Bharti Airtel were amongst the top losers.