Sensex falls over 300 points, Nifty below 11,350

NEW DELHI: Equity indices on Monday started on a weak note with benchmark BSE sensex falling over 400 points in early trade, amid heavy foreign fund outflow and weak domestic as well as global cues.

At 12:30 pm, the 30-share index was trading 340.55 points or 0.89 per cent lower at 37,996.46. While, the broader NSE Nifty was trading 85.75 points or 0.75 per cent lower at 11,333.50.

Major laggards in the sensex pack include HDFC, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finance, Kotak Bank, Hindustan Unilever, M&M, SBI and ITC with their shares falling as much as 4.72 per cent.

On the other hand, Yes Bank, Vedanta, Sun Pharma, Asian Paints, Maruti, Hero Motorcorp, NTPC were the top gainers with their shares rising as much as 7.09 per cent.

HDFC Bank on Saturday reported slightly lower than expected profits for the first quarter. The bank's gross NPAs rose to Rs 11,768.95 crore which is 1.40 per cent of the total advances, compared with Rs 9,538.62 crore which was 1.33 per cent in the same quarter 2018-19 fiscal.

According to experts, the selloff by foreign funds was due to the government's reluctance to tweak foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) income tax surcharge.

The deficiency in monsoon rain and weak corporate earnings have also impacted the risk sentiment, they said.

With domestic investors already battling concerns of a slowing economy, markets are witnessing broad-based selling, said Sunil Sharma, chief investment officer, Sanctum Wealth Management told news agency PTI.

Meanwhile, the Indian rupee depreciated 22 paise (intra-day) to 69.02 against the US dollar.

The global oil benchmark Brent crude futures were trading 1.34 per cent higher at 63.31 per barrel.

(With agency inputs)