By Bharath Rajeswaran and Hritam Mukherjee
(Reuters) -Indian shares declined for a fourth straight session on Thursday, as Hindustan Unilever missed profit estimates on a slowdown in urban demand, dragging consumer stocks, while persistent foreign outflows hit market sentiment.
The NSE Nifty 50 fell 0.15% to 24,399.4 points, while the BSE Sensex shed 0.02% to 80,065.16.
The Nifty 50 has lost about 2% this week and is down 7.15% since hitting a record high on Sept. 27.
Hindustan Unilever fell 5.8%, its worst session in nine months, after the Dove soap maker posted a smaller-than-expected quarterly profit, hurt by higher costs and a slowdown in urban markets. Analysts expect further pain for the consumer major.
The fast moving consumer goods index fell 2.8% and was the top sectoral loser by percentage.
“October has not been good for Indian equities. First the China stimulus led to the ‘buy China, sell India’ trade, which led to broad-based selling,” said Jaykrishna Gandhi, head of business development of institutional equities at Emkay Global Financial Services.
“Rich valuations and lacklustre earnings have also contributed to the correction.”
Foreign institutional investors have net sold Indian shares for eighteen sessions through Wednesday, redirecting funds to China on Beijing’s stimulus measures and because of relatively cheaper stocks.
Other Asian markets also fell on the day, tracking a drop in Wall Street overnight as investors hesitated to place major bets ahead of the U.S. presidential election. [MKTS/GLOB]
In India, five of the 13 major sectors fell. The broader, more domestically focused small- and mid-caps shed 0.2% and 0.33%, respectively.
Aluminium producer Hindalco Industries dropped 3.7% and was the top loser in the metal index after France’s Constellium issued a downbeat forecast.
Constellium is seen as the nearest proxy of Hindalco’s U.S. unit, Novelis [NVL.N].
Paytm rose 2.6% after Citi upgraded the fintech firm’s stock, citing easing regulatory risks.
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran and Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy, Abinaya Vijayaraghavan and Mrigank Dhaniwala)
