Carnage on Dalal Street: Sensex tanks 1,300 points, falls for fifth straight session

Indian stock market extended losses for the fifth consecutive session today amid negative global cues. Sensex lost 1294 points to 57,742 and Nifty declined 381 points to 17,235 in the afternoon session. All 30 Sensex components were trading in the red. Bajaj Finance, Tata Steel and Tech Mahindra were the top Sensex losers, falling up to 5.37 per cent.

BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices fell 1,399 points and 899 points, respectively.

On the sectoral front, consumer durables and IT shares led the losses today.

Stock Market LIVE: Sensex crashes 1,300 pts, Nifty below 17,250; Zomato tanks 19%

BSE consumer durables index fell 1,757 points and IT index plunged 1,047 points in afternoon trade. All 19 sectoral indices were trading in the red.

Parth Nyati, Founder, Tradingo said,"We are seeing a meaningful correction in the market and the intensity of selling is very high on the back of heavy FIIs' selling. There is a risk-off sentiment across the globe amid fear of tightening by the US Fed. We are underperforming today and the main reason is global weakness while another reason is some margin calls got triggered especially in new edge companies and that is causing a ripple effect. Anecdotally, Monday remains ugly in a weak market because lots of unwinding is seen by those who carry over the weekend in hope of recovery.

Technically, 17150 will be a critical support level which is a 61.8% retracement of the previous rally from 17410 to 18350; below this, we can expect Nifty to move towards its 200-DMA that may coincide with 16800 level. If Nifty manages to recover from the 16150 level, then we can expect a pullback rally where 17600-17800 will be an immediate resistance area."

The market breadth was negative with 475 shares trading higher against 3,022 stocks in the red. 124 shares were unchanged. Market cap of BSE-listed firms fell to Rs 261.51 lakh crore.

Earlier, Indian benchmark indices opened lower amid weak global cues. The 30-share BSE index fell 228 points to 58,808.81, and Nifty lost 70 points to 17,546.55.

On Friday, Indian market ended lower for the fourth consecutive session. Sensex closed 427 points lower at 59,034 and Nifty fell 139 points to 17,617.

Bajaj Finserv, Tech Mahindra and Tata Steel were the top Sensex losers, falling up to 5.37%. HUL, Maruti and HDFC were the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 2.68%.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 3,148 crore on January 21, and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 269 crore, as per provisional data available on NSE.