The Indian equity benchmarks nosedived in afternoon trading on the back of a broad-based selling pressure on account of profit taking at higher levels. The Sensex dropped as much as 1,234 points from the day’s highest level and Nifty 50 index broke below its important psychological level of 15,000 after hitting 15,300 earlier in the day.
As of 2:19 pm, the Sensex dropped 601 points to 50,714 and Nifty 50 index dived 178 points to 14,995.
All the 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the Nifty PSU Bank and Auto indexes’ 2 per cent fall.
Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Maruti Suzuki and Axis Bank were among the top drags on the Sensex.
Selling pressure was broad-based as all the 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the Nifty PSU Bank and Auto index’s 2 per cent fall.
Nifty Bank, Financial Services, Metal, Pharma and Private Bank indexes fell over 1 per cent.
Small-cap shares were seen bucking the overall weak trend as Nifty Smallcap 100 index rose 0.2 per cent.
Markets were highly volatile as India VIX spiked over 7 per cent.
Hindalco was top Nifty loser, the stock dropped 3.3 per cent to Rs 329. Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki, SBI Life, Adani Ports, HDFC Life, Hero MotoCorp, ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Sun Pharma and State Bank of India also fell between 2-3 per cent.
Indian Oil, Power Grid, Bharat Petroleum, Titan, JSW Steel and Infosys were among the notable gainers.
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