Sensex Sinks 366 Points, Nifty Ends Below 16,500; Auto, Bank Stocks Drag

New Delhi: The key domestic benchmark indices, Sensex and Nifty, on Thursday which started trade in the green, eventually ended in the negative zone due to high volatility amid geopolitical uncertainty and weekly F&O expiry kept investors on the sidelines.

Brent crude oil surged more than 5 per cent to $120 per barrel as Western nations tighten sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.

After starting over 450 points higher, the 30-share BSE Sensex closed the session in the red. Sensex was at 55,103, down 366 points or 0.66 per cent. On the NSE, the Nifty50 index touched an intra-day high and low of 16,769 and 16,463, respectively, amid heightened choppiness. It shut shop at 16,498, down 108 points or 0.65 per cent.

ONGC, Power Grid, UPL, Wipro, Tech M, HCL Tech, and Coal India were the top gainers on the Nifty index today, rising between 2 per cent and 4.6 per cent. On the flipside, Ultratech Cement, HDFC Life, Asian Paints, Shree Cement, Eicher Motors, SBI Life, and Tata Consumer Products were the top laggards, down up to 6.5 per cent.

The broader markets, however, ended mixed with the BSE Midcap index settling 0.64 per cent down. The BSE Smallcap index, on the other hand, added 0.35 per cent.

Most of the sector gauges, compiled by the National Stock Exchange, were trading in the red. Nifty Auto and Nifty Bank underperformed the index by falling as much as 2.28 per cent and 1.21 per cent, respectively. However, Nifty IT and Nifty Oil & Gas climbed 1.22 and 1.46 per cent, respectively.

In the previous session, the 30-share BSE Sensex plunged 778 points to 55,468, while the NSE Nifty settled at 16,605, down 188 points.

Investors’ wealth tumbled Rs 86,741.74 crore on Wednesday, mirroring weakness in the global equity markets amid escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine.