Indian equity markets continued their losing streak for the fourth consecutive day on Monday, 7 December, responding to the strong possibility of a rate hike by the US at its next meeting on 15 and 16 December following the release of improved US non-farm payroll figures.
The S&P BSE Sensex closed at 25,530.11, down 108 points, or 0.42%, while the NSE Nifty ended with a loss of 16.50 points, or 0.21%, at 7,765.40.
Cigarette maker ITC was the biggest Sensex loser, shedding 6.57% on renewed fears of a "sin" tax and closed at Rs 313.55.
Sin tax refers to tax on alcohol and tobacco. It is expected that under the proposed GST regime, alcohol and tobacco makers will have to pay "sin" tax.
The most critical data before the US Fed meeting revealed that the US added 2.11 lakh non-farm jobs in November, better than the estimate of 1.90 lakh jobs. Besides, the numbers for the preceding months of September and October were also revised upwards by 35,000 jobs.
It is expected that the healthy payroll figures could result in the Fed hiking rates by a nominal 0.25%.
The markets had opened on a positive note in the morning. While the Sensex was up 89 points, or 0.35%, the 50-share Nifty was trading higher at 7,806.90 points, up 0.32% from Friday closing.
The early morning rally was on expected lines, tracking the SGX Nifty and other Asian markets, besides an uptick in US markets on non-farm payroll figures, brokerage Angel Broking had said in its morning update.
Sun Pharma, Lupin, Tata Steel and Hindustan Unilever were the prominent Sensex gainers while the top losers were ITC, Bajaj Finserv, Sun TV Network, India Hotels, Coal India and ONGC.
While 1,446 shares advanced on the BSE, 1,316 declined.
