Sensex tanks 1,000 points amid weak global cues; banking, IT shares top losers

The Indian equity market resumed correction after a single-session pause today. The market came under selling pressure, tracking deep losses in IT, finance, banking and energy stocks amid widespread selling in the global markets.

Sensex crashed 1,016 points to 54,303 and Nifty declined 276 points to 16,201in the last trading session this week.  

Kotak Bank was the top Sensex loser, falling about 4 per cent, followed by Bajaj Finance, HDFC twins, Reliance Industries, Wipro, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Tata Steel and TCS.

Asian Paints, UltraTech Cement, Dr Reddy's, Titan and IndusInd Bank were among the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 0.78 per cent.

ALSO READ: Rs 3.20 lakh cr investor wealth lost as Sensex closes 1,000 points lower

Nagaraj Shetti, Technical Research Analyst, HDFC Securities said, "After showing a fine upside recovery from the lows on Thursday, Nifty witnessed a steep U turn on the downside on Friday and tanked lower by 276 points. After opening with a downside gap of 195 points (body gap, not a western gap), the market showed continues selling pressure through out the day. Minor intraday upside recoveries in between have been sold off and the Nifty closed near the lows. A long negative candle was formed on the daily chart and that moved below the support of 16200 levels. Now, the supports have started to break down one after another and the market seems to have picked up downside momentum on Friday."

Market cap of BSE-listed firms fell to Rs 251.81 lakh crore today against Rs 254.95 lakh crore market cap in the previous session, translating into a loss of Rs 3.2 lakh crore.

Market breadth was negative with 1,298 shares ending higher against 2010 stocks falling on BSE. 121 shares were unchanged.

BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices fell 141 points and 181 points, respectively in trade today.
On a sectoral basis, banking and IT stocks were top losers, falling 730 points and 629 points respectively.

The rupee fell 11 paise to close at a record low of 77.85 against the US dollar on Friday.

Commenting on the rupee fall, Mohit Nigam, Head - PMS, Hem Securities said, "INR hit a record low of 77.85 against the US Dollar today. Some of the reasons behind this weakening includes persistent FII selling from past few months, rising bond yields, increasing oil prices and inflationary pressures for coming quarters. We need to closely monitor the US consumer inflation data, if it remains at elevated levels and bond yields continue to rise, we may witness more FII selling which would negatively impact INR. However if the inflation data comes better than expected and the US bond yield stabilizes, we may see some signs of reversal in USD INR."

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital market, as they sold shares worth Rs 1,512.64 crore on Thursday, as per exchange data.

On  Thursday, benchmark indices snapped four days of losing streak despite weak global cues. Sensex surged 427.79 points to close at 55,320.28. During the day, the benchmark hit a high of 55,366.84 and a low of 54,507.41. Nifty advanced 121.85 points or 0.74 per cent to end at 16,478.10.

Dr Reddy's was the top Sensex gainer, rising 3 per cent, followed by Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, Tech Mahindra, Sun Pharma and Kotak Mahindra Bank.

Global markets

Following a massive sell-off in the US market, bourses in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Seoul ended sharply lower, while Shanghai settled in the green. Equities in Europe were witnessing intense selling pressure in mid-session deals. Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.45 per cent to $123.62 per barrel.