Sensex Tanks 566 Points, Nifty Settles Below 17,900; Financial, IT Stocks Drag

Midcap and smallcap shares finished on a weak note as Nifty Midcap 100 index fell 0.59 per cent and smallcap shed 0.12 per cent

New Delhi: The key domestic equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, on Wednesday fell for the second straight session, mainly drag by financial and IT stocks.

The 30-share BSE Sensex sank 566 points (0.94 per cent) to close at 59,610, while the broader NSE Nifty moved 150 points (0.83 per cent) lower to settle at 17,808.

HDFC Bank, HDFC, and HDFC Life were the biggest laggards on the 50-pack index as they fell between 2.5 per cent and 3.5 per cent.

Besides, HCL Tech, Infosys, Tech M, Shree Cement, TCS, Divis Labs, Kotak Bank, Axis Bank, and M&M were the other losers, sliding upwards of 1 per cent each.

On the flipside, Coal India, Tata Steel, NTPC, UPL, PowerGrid, BPCL, and Bharti Airtel. These shares added in the range of 1 per cent to 3 per cent.

Shares of Ruchi Soya Industries continued to witness selling pressure, and fell as much as 19 per cent to Rs 706 on the BSE in Wednesday's intra-day trade amid heavy volumes ahead of the listing of shares allotted via follow-on-public offering. The stock of edible oil company has slipped 28 per cent in the past one week, as compared to a 2.8 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex.

Midcap and smallcap shares finished on a weak note as Nifty Midcap 100 index fell 0.59 per cent and smallcap shed 0.12 per cent.

12 out of the 15 sector gauges, compiled by the NSE, ended in the negative zone. Nifty Financial Services and Nifty IT underperformed the index by falling as much as 1.59 per cent and 1.63 per cent, respectively.

"Domestic equities moved in tandem with US markets to close lower, fuelled by investors' expectation of a stricter interest rate hike by Fed," according to Mitul Shah, Head Of Research at Reliance Securities.

On Tuesday, the BSE Sensex slumped 435 points to finish at 60,176. Similarly, the NSE Nifty tumbled 96 points to 17,957.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude gained 0.93 per cent to $107.6 per barrel.

Elsewhere in Asian markets, bourses in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul settled lower, while Shanghai was in the green. Indices in the US also ended on a lower note on Tuesday.

Foreign portfolio investors bought shares worth Rs 374.89 crore on Tuesday, according to stock exchange data.