Domestic equities fall on soaring oil price, Trump comments

Domestic equities came under a bearish grip with 50-share index Nifty falling over one percent on Monday on the back of comments of US President-elect Donald Trump on H-1 Visa coupled with soaring crude oil prices.

Reports on likely delay in goods and services tax (GST) implementation also dampened investors' sentiments.

While the 30-share index Sensex closed 0.87 percent lower at 26,515.24, the 50-share index ended at 8,170.80, down 1.10 percent. Overall market breadth was negative with 1,102 advances and 1,551 declines.

Shares of BPCL, Ambuja Cements, Asian Paints, UltraTech Cements and Eicher Motors lost on Monday trade with BPCL leading the pack. However, shares of ONGC, NTPC, Sun Pharma, and TCS bucked the trend and closed in the green. Auto, banking and IT counters came under intense selling pressure and dragged the indices. Small cap and mid cap indices also lost, supporting the overall market trend.

Meantime, IT bellwether Infosys was down 1.15 percent to close at Rs 978 owing to Trump's statement on H-1B visa norms. The President-elect had said that he wouldn't allow replacement of American workers with foreigners. Reports on possible delay in GST implementation also weighed on investors' sentiments.

In global front, performance of Asian indices was mixed with China's Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong's Hang Seng trading in the red. Weak Asian indices supplemented the downtrend in domestic equities.

Among commodities, oil prices surged to touch around $55 per barrel as Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC countries arrived at their first output cutting agreement in Vienna. Domestic currency market remained shut today on account of Id-e-Milad.