Heavy selling by domestic institutional investors (DIIs) took India’s stock markets by surprise on the first trading day of 2018. Key stock index Sensex fell 244 points or 0.72 per cent to close at 33,812. Broader index Nifty was down 0.9 per cent or 95 points to close at 10,435. While the DIIs sold stocks worth ₹1,300 crore, FPIs bought stocks worth ₹325 crore. DIIs were net buyers of stocks worth around ₹1.16 lakh crore in 2017, their largest purchase of equities in a year in decades.
The share prices of Anil Ambani group-promoted companies, Reliance Naval and Engineering and Reliance Power, rose 32 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively.
BHEL, Coal India, Tata Power and Indiabulls Housing were the top gainers, while IndusInd Bank, Tata Motors, TCS, Bharti Infratel were the top losers in the Sensex pack.