Sensex Crashes 704 Points, Nifty Settles Below 17,000 Amid High Volatility

New Delhi: The key equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, on Tuesday extended their fall for the fifth straight session amid selling pressure among IT stocks and highly volatile market due to ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

The indices oscillated between gains and losses throughout the day before declining sharply in late deals.

The 30-share Sensex tanked 704 points (1.23 per cent) to close at 56,463, while the broader NSE Nifty moved 215 points (1.25 per cent) lower to settle at 16,959.

Reliance Industries (up 3.5 per cent), ICICI Bank (up 0.16 per cent), SBI, and Bajaj Finance were the only four gainers on the 30-pack index. The main losers on the index were HDFC (down 6 per cent), HDFC Bank (down 4.2 per cent), ITC, Tech M, Infosys, Nestle India, and HCL Tech.

In the broader markets, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices declined up to 1.2 per cent.

Sectorally, the Nifty Realty, FMCG, and IT indices slipped 3.5 per cent each, followed by the Nifty Financial Services index (down 2.5 per cent). 14 out of the 15 sector gauges, compiled by the National Stock Exchange, ended in the red.

In the previous session on Monday, the benchmark index tanked 1,172 points (2.01 per cent) to settle at 57,166 points on Monday. The broader NSE Nifty plunged 302 points (1.73 per cent) to finish at 17,173 points.

In Asia, markets in Shanghai and Hong Kong settled lower, while Seoul and Tokyo were up.

Markets in Europe were also trading lower in the afternoon session. The pan-European Stoxx 600 slid 0.8 per cent in early trade.

On Wall Street, futures linked to all the main three indices were down between 0.14 per cent and 0.4 per cent. Stocks in the US had ended marginally lower on Monday.

International oil benchmark Brent crude declined 1.39 per cent to $111.6 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors continued their selling spree, offloading shares worth a net Rs 6,387.45 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.