Sensex falls 281 points on intense selling pressure; Nifty ends below 10,250 level

The Sensex and Nifty closed lower on Monday in lacklustre trade with all BSE indices except IT index, ending the day in negative territory. During the last hour of trade, the Sensex succumbed to selling pressure and fell nearly 300 points. It later recovered marginally in the final minutes of trading. While the Sensex fell 281 points to 33,033 level, the Nifty closed 96 points or 0.94 percent to 10,224 level. Here are the key highlights, which affected the market today.

4:03 pm: The New India Assurance Company stock closed 9.37 percent or 75 points below its issue price of Rs 800 on the BSE after the country's largest general insurer listed at a 6.4 percent discount at 748.90 level.

3:40 pm: NTPC reported a marginal fall in quarterly profit on Monday, missing analysts' estimates. Profit after tax from continuing operations for the second quarter ended September 30 fell 2.3 percent to Rs 2,439 crore ($372.71 million) from Rs 2497 crore a year earlier.

3:29 pm: SpiceJet Q2 net profit at Rs 105 crore against profit of Rs 58.91 crore last year. Stock rises over 7 percent to Rs 153 intraday. Closes 4.36 percent or 6 points higher at 148.50 on the BSE. 

3:27 pm: Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited (APSEZ), the logistics arm of Adani Group, reported a 7.88 per cent fall in consolidated net profit to Rs 992.37 crore for the second quarter ended September 30. The company had clocked a net profit of Rs 1,077.28 crore in the corresponding period of the last fiscal.

2:40 pm: "Rising crude is weighing on the market and has become a major concern," said K K Mittal, Vice President, Venus India Asset Finance.

2:29 PM: Government official says ONGC follow-on public offer likely to come this financial year.

2:28 PM: Reliance Communications stock tanks over 12% on Q2 earnings, hits fresh 52-week low of 12.10 level on the BSE. 

12:47 pm: Market breadth was negative with 1174 stocks rising against 1379 falling on the BSE.

12: 39 pm: Sun Pharma (1.98 percent), Mahindra and Mahindra (1.80 percent) and TCS (1.76 percent) top gainers on the BSE Sensex.

12:36 pm: Larsen & Toubro stock trading 1.25 percent or 15 points lower at 1,248 level on the BSE. The firm reported a higher than expected 27 percent rise in Q2 net profit, helped by a one-off gain from the sale of a subsidiary. Consolidated net profit rose to Rs 1820 crore($279.31 million) in the three months ended September 30 from Rs 1435 crore a year earlier.

12:24 pm: Rupee trading 0.39 percent higher at 65.4150 level.

12:01 pm: The Coal India stock fell as much as 3.5 percent to Rs 274.40, lowest since October 6 in morning trade. Stock posts its biggest intraday percentage drop since August 3. Q2 net profit fell nearly 40 percent to Rs 369 crore ($56.48 million), the firm said.

11:57 am: L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering has secured a Rs 1,267-crore offshore contract from ONGC. The project is part of ONGC's strategy to replace some of its well fluid, gas lift and water injection pipelines along with brownfield modification works. 

11:55 am: Telecom operator Idea Cellular reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 1,106.8 crore for the second quarter of the current fiscal. The company had reported a net profit of Rs 91.5 crore in July-September a year ago.

11:51 am: PC Jeweller Q2 net profit at Rs 151 crore against profit of Rs 107 crore last year. Stock slips 3.23 percent to Rs 368 on BSE.

10:48 am: SBI stock gains the most on Sensex, Nifty after the public sector lender reported its Q2 earnings on Friday.

10:19 am: New India Assurance Company lists at Rs 748.90 on the BSE, a 6.4% discount to the issue price of Rs 800.

10:11 am: DLF shares down 5.8 percent to Rs 195 in early trade; company reported quarterly results on Friday.

10:06 am: Reliance Communications shares fell more than 9% in early trade after the firm reported a loss in Q2. Shares in the company were trading at Rs 12.80, down 9.3 percent. It dropped to a low of 12.75 earlier in the session.

10:02 am: October consumer price inflation to be announced today. Wholesale price inflation for October to be announced tomorrow.

9:40 am: Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports, BGR Energy, Idea Cellular, Indian Hotel, NTPC, PC Jewellers, Repco and Tata Chemicals  to report Q2 earnings today.

9:00 am: Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei dropped 0.7 percent, bringing down MSCI's Asia-Pacific Index 0.4 percent. Excluding Japan, shares in the region were down just 0.05 percent, with mainland Chinese shares rising 0.6 percent to two-year highs.

By Friday's close on Wall Street, the S&P 500 index had snapped an eight-week winning streak as investors took profits after US Senate Republicans had unveiled a new tax plan that differed from the House of Representatives' version.

Markets closed lower in Europe on Friday as Brexit talks concluded with members urging UK to move faster in its negotiations. On the earnings front, Leonardo fell as it cut its revenue and profit guidance for 2017.

US Markets closed lower on friday with Dow and S&P500 snapping eight-week winning streak. Tech stocks like Facebook, Netflix and Alphabet added to the losses.