Sensex Falls Over 200 Pts, Nifty50 Down To 19,349; IT Stocks Jump, HDFC Bank Drags
Domestic equities plunged in the opening session on Wednesday led by losses in HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, and ICICI Bank. BSE benchmark Sensex slipped 347.23 points, or 0.53 per cent to 65,054.69, while broader NSE Nifty50 fell 111.75 points, or 0.58 per cent to 19,322.80.
By 9.35 am, Sensex was trading 227.86 points, or 0.35 per cent lower at 65,174.06, while Nifty50 was down 85.55 points, or 0.44 per cent to 19,349.
Infosys jumped around 2 per cent in early deals after the IT giant signed a deal with Liberty Global worth $1.64 billion to build and scale the entertainment and connectivity platforms of the digital communications firm. Infosys said the agreement has an initial tenure of five years which can be extended to eight years, which would take the deal value to $2.5 billion.
ITC jumped around 0.80 per cent after the company’s board on Monday approved the demerger of hotels business, and said that the listing of the new entity will happen in next 15 months.
Meanwhile, IndiGo slipped 4 per cent to trade at Rs 2,446.95 reports stated that the airline’s co-founder Rakesh Gangwal and his family is looking at selling shares worth $450 million (Rs 3,730 crore) through block deal today.
Broader markets indices also extended losses, as Nifty Next 50 slipped 0.70 per cent, Nifty 100 fell 0.58 per cent, Nifty 200 tanked 0.56 per cent, Nifty Midcap Select slipped 0.65 per cent, and Nifty Total Market was trading 0.51 per cent down in early deals. On the other hand, India Vix spurt 4.31 per cent.
Sectorally, only media and IT indices were trading in the green, up 1 and 0.29 per cent respectively. Nifty PSU Bank fell 1.17 per cent, financial services index slipped 1.12 per cent, and private bank index fell 0.91 per cent.
HDFC Bank, Hindalco, Grasim, Bajaj Finance, Britannia, IndusInd Bank, Eicher Motors, Tata Steel, HDFC Life, ICICI Bank, and Tata Motors were the top losers in morning trade.
On the other hand, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, BPCL, HCLTech, ITC, Wipro, LTI Mindtree, Dr Reddy, M&M, SBI, and TCS were the top gainers.