Sensex crashes 656 pts, Nifty cracks below 18,000 tracking global rout
BENGALURU: The BSE gauge Sensex plummeted over 656 points and the NSE Nifty dropped below the key 18,000mark on Wednesday as global market rout cast a shadow on domestic equities.
Starting off on a positive note, the BSE benchmark gave up its early gains and briefly slipped below the psychological 60,000barrier before closing at 60,098.82, tumbling 656.04 points or 1.08% its weakest level since January 7.
Likewise, the NSE barometer Nifty plunged 174.65 points or 0.96% to close at 17,938.40 as 35 of its stocks closed with losses.
Infosys fell the most among Sensex stocks, declining by 2.77%. Among other major laggards were Asian Paint, HUL, Nestle, Bajaj Finance, Wipro and Kotak Bank –falling as much as 2.71%. On the Sensex, 22 shares suffered losses.
Among gainers were SBI, Tata Steel, Maruti, Axis Bank , Tech Mahindra, PowerGrid, M&M and Reliance Industries.
In the broader market, BSE Midcap declined by 0.34% while Smallcap ended almost flat.
Sectorally, BSE IT index dropped 1.95%, Teck fell 1.79%, Bankex was down 0.52% and Telecom was 0.97% lower.
Market breadth was largely negative as 1,827 stocks out of 3,495 trading stocks declined while 1,579 stocks advanced and 89 ended unchanged on the BSE.
Total turnover in the equity segment was ₹6,386.89 crore on the BSE.
“Globally, risk sentiments took a blow as rising inflation resulting in elevated bond yield along with the on-going geopolitical tensions and surge in oil prices weighed on investor confidence. This along with consistent FII selling forced the domestic market to trade in favour of bears for the second consecutive day,” Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said.
Foreign investors remained net sellers in the Indian equity markets as they offloaded stocks worth ₹1,254.95 crore on Tuesday, according to stock exchange data.
Asian stock markets declined in cautious trading with Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 plunging nearly 3% following losses on Wall Street. South Korea’s Kospi declined 0.8%, the Shanghai Composite lost 0.3% to 3,558.18. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng inched up. Global shares mostly fell in cautious trading, with Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 down nearly 3%, after stocks on Wall Street sank to a new low for the year.