Bears On Prowl: Sensex Back In The Red, Down 332 Points, Nifty Settles At 17,415

On the Sensex chart, Maruti, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, ITC, Reliance, L&T, UltraTech Cement and HDFC were the major losers, while NTPC, ICICI Bank, and Kotak Bank were notable gainers

New Delhi: The key benchmark indices crashed to lower levels on Wednesday after holding gains for a major part of the day’s trading.

Steady gains in financial and power stocks helped the BSE Sensex touch a high of 58,968, but during late noon the Sensex slipped around 332 points and finally settled at 58,340.

The NSE Nifty had touched a high of 17,601 in intra-day trade and then tanked to a low of 17,354. The index eventually ended with a loss of 88 points at 17,415.

On the positive front, NTPC, ICICI Bank, and Kotak Bank rose a per cent each, while PowerGrid Corporation and State Bank of India were the other notable gainers. Shares of the listed firms, including latest View Analytics, Paytm, auto parts and equipment company SJS Enterprises, and Fino Payments Bank rallied up to 20 per cent in intra-day trades supported by heavy volumes.

Among the Sensex 30 shares, Maruti and Infosys plunged around 2.5 per cent each to Rs 7,645 and Rs 1,690, respectively. ITC and Tech Mahindra were down nearly 2 per cent each. Larsen & Toubro, Reliance Industries, Tata Steel, IndusInd Bank, UltraTech Cement, and HDFC were the other major losers.

Sensex, which crashed over 700 points in early trade on Tuesday, finally reversed the four-day losing streak. The Sensex on Tuesday closed trading with a gain of 198 points at 58,664.33.

The NSE Nifty after surging more than 300 points intra-day finally settled at 17,503, 86 points higher.

Sensex zoomed past the 59,000 mark in the pre-open session while Nifty 50 was below 17,400 as benchmark indices moved in either direction.

Meanwhile, the markets in Europe have started trade on a positive note. FTSE 100 and CAC 40 had gained 0.5 per cent and 0.4 per cent, respectively. DAX 30 was up 0.1 per cent.