By Bharath Rajeswaran
(Reuters) -India’s equity benchmarks extended their losing streak on Monday, as weakness in heavyweight private banks outweighed gains in energy stocks.
The Nifty 50 fell 0.08% to 24,634.90, while the BSE Sensex also shed 0.08% to 80,364.94, logging losses for the seventh straight session, their longest daily losing streak in nearly seven months.
The indexes fell 2.7% last week, their sharpest weekly drop in nearly seven months, pressured by a hike in U.S. H-1B visa fees and steep tariffs on branded drugs that worsened foreign outflows.
Investors are cautious in a holiday-shortened week and on persistent foreign selling, said Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Investments. Uncertainty over the U.S.-India trade deal and sustained pressure on IT and pharma stocks remain near-term drags, Nair said.
Private banks slipped 0.3%, with Axis Bank dropping 1.9% after Citi Research flagged near-term pressure on net interest margins.
Investors await the monetary policy decision, due on Wednesday, with nearly three-quarters of economists in a Reuters poll expecting rates to remain unchanged.
However, several major banks flagged the possibility of a cut, citing mounting risks to growth. A cut would lower borrowing costs, lift consumption, and bolster corporate earnings, providing a boost to domestic equities.
On the day, 10 of the 16 major sectors advanced.
Energy and oil and gas indexes gained 0.7% and 1.4%, after multiple brokerages cited the government’s clarity on pricing reforms and a sharper focus on market capitalisation as positives.
Oil marketing companies BPCL, HPCL and Indian Oil rose 4.2%, 4.6% and 2.9%, respectively.
The broader small-caps were little changed while mid-caps rose about 0.3%.
Among individual stocks, Larsen & Toubro fell 1.1% after BofA Securities downgraded the shares to “underperform” from “buy”, forecasting no scope for valuation expansion after a recent rally.
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema, Mrigank Dhaniwala and Janane Venkatraman)
