Falling for 2nd day, Nifty 50 sinks below 24,550 dragged by financial, IT, energy shares—10 key takeaways

Domestic equity benchmarks fell and were on track to close higher for a second straight session on Monday amid selling pressure in financial, IT and energy shares. The Sensex fell as much as 796.8 points, or 1.0 per cent, to hit 80,654.3 during the session, whereas the Nifty 50 descended to as low as 24,526.2, giving up 224.6 points, or 0.9 per cent, from its previous close. Globally, investors fretted over the reemergence of trade war-related concerns after US President Donald Trump doubled a duty applicable to imported steel and aluminium to 50 per cent, with effect from June 4. The US president’s move refuelled fears about US-China trade tensions.

Here are 10 things to know about the market today: 

• Both main indices recovered more than half of their intraday losses in the second half of the session. At 1:15 pm, the Sensex was down 126 points, or 0.2 per cent, at 81,325.1 while the Nifty50 was down 32.6 points, or 0.1 per cent, at 24,718.2. 

Top Nifty 50 gainers & losers

• Hero MotoCorp, Tech Mahindra, HDFC Life, JSW Steel, Tata Steel, Titan, Bajaj Auto and UltraTech Cement, trading around 1-2 per cent lower each, were the worst hit among the 29 losers in the Nifty50 basket.
• On the other hand, M&M, Eternal, Tata Consumer, PowerGrid and Apollo Hospitals, rising around 1-2 per cent each, were among the top blue-chip gainers.

Top Sensex & Nifty movers

• HDFC Bank, RIL and ICICI Bank were the biggest contributors to the losses in both main indices, whereas M&M and Eternal offered the biggest support. 
• In afternoon deals, the Nifty Bank—whose 12 constituents are stocks of the strongest lenders in India including SBI and HDFC Bank—was flat, having recovered its intraday loss of around half a per cent.

Broader Markets & More | Midcap and smallcap stocks 

• Broader indices Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 held on firmly to the green, quoting 0.6 per cent and 1.2 per cent higher in afternoon deals, respectively.
• Overall market breadth was largely neutral with a positive bias, with 2,093 rising and 1,917 falling stocks on BSE. 

FII & DII fund flows

• FII outflows continued to weigh on the market, pulling out a net Rs 6,450 crore from Dalal Street shares on Friday though DIIs made net purchases of Rs 9,096 crore, according to provisional exchange data. However, May was a third straight month of FII inflows on Dalal Street, amounting to Rs 16,522 crore, while DII inflows exceeded Rs 1.3 lakh crore. DIIs have completed 22 back-to-back months as net purchasers in the market. 
• With the earnings season now out of the way, investors’ focus has returned to domestic macroeconomic data and global cues. Globally, investors are closely tracking headlines on US trade policy updates and the fate of scheduled peace talks between Ukraine and Russia. 

Will RBI cut repo rate in June 2025?

• The RBI is due to announce the outcome of its bi-monthly MPC deliberations on June 6. The central bank’s rate-deciding panel is widely expected to announce a cut of 25-50 bps in the repo rate in this review. 

Global markets

European shares began Monday’s trade on a negative note, with the pan-continental Stoxx 600 index trading 0.2 per cent lower at the last count. While the UK’s FTSE 100 was flat, France’s CAC and Germany’s DAX gauges were down 0.5 per cent and 0.4 per cent, respectively. 

Dow Jones futures traded 0.4 per cent lower, suggesting a negative start ahead on Wall Street. 

Earlier on Monday, Asian equities suffered losses as investors assessed the US President’s latest tariff threat. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.3 per cent, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 slumped 1.3 per cent.