Market Data 
- India’s Nifty loses 4% so far, having opened 1% lower on Tuesday.
- Vote counting raises doubts on a clear victory margin for the PM Modi-led BJP alliance.
- All eyes remain on India’s election outcome and the June 7 RBI policy decision.
Nifty 50, India’s key benchmark index, extends its decline, losing about 4% so far this Tuesday.
Markets are witnessing a big sell-off, as the vote counting gets underway and raises uncertainty over a victory by a decisive majority for the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance when compared to the predictions by the exit polls over the weekend.
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) Nifty 50 is losing roughly 4% on the day to trade at 22,285.
Stock market news
- The top gainers on Nifty are Hindustan Unilever, Brittania. Hero Moto Corp, SunPharma and Divis Laboratories. Meanwhile, the big losers on Nifty are Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports, Coal India, NTPC and ONGC.
- Traders said the markets were selling off on Tuesday as investors await more clarity on the total number seats that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would win.
- Exit polls over the weekend predicted that PM Modi will retain power for a third straight term, with BJP-led NDA winning anywhere between 350-401 seats.
- The Indian Rupee has faced rejection at the key resistance of 83.04 against the US Dollar, driving USD/INR back toward 83.50, as of writing, up 0.40% on the day.
- Markets are also weighing the US economic health prospects after the weak ISM PMI data on Monday.
- ISM Manufacturing PMI index dropped from 49.2 in April to 48.7 in May, missing the expected 49.6 print. The ISM Manufacturing Prices Paid eased to 57.0 in May vs. 60.9 previous and 60.0 expected.
- Last week, India’s economy grew by 8.2% in the fiscal year ended March 2024, sharply higher than the 7% expansion recorded in the previous year, led by a robust performance of manufacturing and construction sectors, per Reuters.
- All eyes remain on the results of the 2024 India general election due later on Tuesday and the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) monetary policy announcements on June 7 for fresh trading impulse.
Sensex FAQs
The Sensex is a name for one of India’s most closely monitored stock indexes. The term was coined in the 1980s by analyst Deepak Mohoni by mashing the words sensitive and index together. The index plots a weighted average of the share price of 30 of the most established stocks on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Each corporation’s weighting is based on its “free-float capitalization”, or the value of all its shares readily available for trading.
Given it is a composite, the value of the Sensex is first and foremost dependent on the performance of its constituent companies as revealed in their quarterly and annual results. Government policies are another factor. In 2016 the government decided to phase out high value currency notes, for example, and certain companies saw their share price fall as a result. When the government decided to cut corporation tax in 2019, meanwhile, the Sensex gained a boost. Other factors include the level of interest rates set by the Reserve Bank of India, since that dictates the cost of borrowing, climate change, pandemics and natural disasters
The Sensex started life on April 1 1979 at a base level of 100. It reached its highest recorded level so far, at 73,328, on Monday, January 15, 2024 (this is being written in Feb 2024). The Index closed above the 10,000 mark for the first time on February 7, 2006. On March 13, 2014 the Sensex closed higher than Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index to become the major Asian stock index with the highest value. The index’s biggest gain in a single day occurred on April 7, 2020, when it rose 2,476 points; its deepest single-day loss occurred on January 21, 2008, when it plunged 1,408 points due the US subprime crisis.
Major companies within the Sensex include Reliance Industries Ltd, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, ITC Ltd, Bharti Airtel Ltd, Tata Steel, HCL Technologies, Infosys, State Bank of India, Sun Pharma, Tata Consultancy Services and Tech Mahindra.
