New Delhi: The Sensex fell around 2,000 points in the early hours of trading on counting day Tuesday, while the Nifty fell around 600 points, in reaction to early leads that showed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance leading in just 302 seats, lower than what was projected in the exit polls.
The fall in the stock markets — so far by between 2-3 percent — comes a day after the Sensex and Nifty rallied 3.4 percent and 3.25 percent on Monday, the first day of trading after the exit poll results that predicted a Narendra Modi landslide.
Just six stocks were trading in positive territory out of the 30 companies tracked in the Sensex. These included stocks in the fast-moving consumer goods space — Hindustan Unilever, Nestle India, and Asian Paints — as well as Infosys, Titan, and Sun Pharma.
“The steep fall is due to the results so far falling short of the exit polls which the market had discounted yesterday,” V.K. Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services said. “If the BJP doesn’t get a majority on its own, there will be disappointment and this will get reflected in the market.
“Also it is possible that Modi 3.0 may not be as reform-oriented as the market expected and may turn more welfare-oriented,” he added. “This is getting reflected in the strength in FMCG stocks.”
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