Sensex falls over 150 pts, Nifty slips below 10,300
Mumbai, Oct 8 : The BSE Sensex fell over 150 points and the NSE Nifty dropped below the 10,300-level in early trade Monday on unabated foreign fund outflow amid weak Asian cues and the weakness in rupee.
Falling for the fourth straight session, the BSE 30-share barometer fell 169.20 points, or 0.53 per cent, to 34,207.79 after hitting a low of 34,106.24.
The gauge had plunged by 2,149.15 points in the previous three sessions.
Sectoral indices, led by metal, realty, consumer durables, capital goods, healthcare, auto, FMCG, power and teck, were trading in the negative terrain, falling up to 3.38 per cent.
The NSE Nifty fell 88.85 points, or 0.86 per cent, to 10,227.60.
Top laggards include Vedanta, Tata Steel, Adani Ports, HDFC, Wipro, L&T, RIL, Bajaj Auto, ITC, Maruti Suzuki, HUL, Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank, TCS, Bharti Airtel, IndusInd Bank, M&M and Axis Bank, dropping by up to 6.58 per cent.
However, Yes Bank, Coal India, SBI, ONGC, PowerGrid and Kotak Bank were trading in the green on value buying.
Foreign funds sold shares worth a net of Rs 3,370.14 crore, while domestic institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 1,902.07 crore Friday, provisional data showed.
Foreign investors have pulled out over Rs 9,300 crore (USD 1.3 billion) from the Indian capital market in the last four trading sessions.
Brokers said besides unabated foreign fund outflows, losses at other Asian markets, led by China and Friday's losses in the US market, dampened trading sentiments here.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.87 per cent, while Taiwan TSEC index shed 0.78 per cent in their late morning deals. Shanghai Composite Index fell 2.95 per cent. Japanese markets are closed Monday for a public holiday.
The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.68 per cent down on Friday.
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Trump pauses Project Freedom, claims great progress for final agreement with Iran
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump has suspended “Project Freedom,” to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, claiming progress in negotiations with Iran toward an agreement to end the war.
In a post on Truth Social on Tuesday, Trump said, “Great progress has been made toward a complete and final agreement with representatives of Iran.”
“Based on the request of Pakistan and other Countries, the tremendous Military Success that we have had during the Campaign against the Country of Iran and, additionally, the fact that Great Progress has been made toward a Complete and Final Agreement with Representatives of Iran, we have mutually agreed that, while the Blockade will remain in full force and effect, Project Freedom (The Movement of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz) will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed," Trump said.
Project Freedom was launched on Monday to escort ships, stranded due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, out to safety. Trump had announced the operation on Sunday and the US Central Command began implementing it the next day.
However, the Project led to friction in the vicinity of the narrow seaway, a key route for transporting one-fifth of the global oil supplies, with the UAE claiming that its ships were attacked by Iran. The US also claimed to have destroyed several Iranian small boats.
Trump’s statement on Truth Social came hours after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that Operation Epic Fury, launched on February 28, had concluded as its objectives have been achieved.
"Operation Epic Fury is concluded. We achieved the objectives of that operation. We're not cheering for an additional situation to occur. We would prefer the path of peace. What @POTUS would prefer is a deal... that is, so far, not the route that Iran has chosen," Rubio told a press conference at the White House on Tuesday.
On Project Freedom, Rubio said the goal was to rescue almost 23,000 civilians from 87 different countries who were trapped inside the Persian Gulf and left for dead by the Iranian regime.
"This is not an offensive operation. This is a defensive operation, and what that means is very simple: there’s no shooting unless we're shot at first. We’re not attacking them, but if they're attacking us or they’re attacking a ship, you need to respond to that," Rubio said.
