New Delhi: The key equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, on Monday declined heavily due to surging commodity prices, aggressive monetary policy by US Federal Reserve, and rising Covid cases. Stocks across the board plunged sharply, dragged by heavy selling pressure in FMCG, IT, and metals.


The 30-share BSE Sensex tanked over 800 points in intra-day trade before ending at 56,580, down 617 points, while the broader NSE Nifty logged 16,953, down 218 points.


On the Nifty, the gainers were Bajaj Auto, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC, Nestle India, Bharti Airtel, and Kotak Bank. On the flipside, Coal India, BPCL, Tata Steel, SBI Life, Hindalco, Tata Motors, and Sun Pharma were the main losers.


On Monday, shares of Future Group companies’ tanked as much as 20 per cent after Reliance called off its Rs 24,713-crore deal with the group over the weekend.


Among the BSE pack, Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra, NTPC, Reliance Industries, Titan, ITC, Larsen & Toubro, and Sun Pharma were the major laggards, while the main gainers were HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Nestle, Maruti Suzuki, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Bharti Airtel.


Meanwhile, the broader indices, BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap indices slipped 1.8 per cent.


Only the Nifty Private Bank index ended day’s trade in the positive zone, up 0.44 per cent. The Nifty Realty index, which was down 4 per cent, was the worst. It was followed by the Nifty Metal index, which was down 3 per cent.


On Friday’s session, Sensex declined 714 points (1.23 per cent) to end at 57,197, while the Nifty dropped 220 points (1.27 per cent) to 17,171.


Asian markets in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul and Shanghai settled significantly lower.


In Europe, the markets during the afternoon session were also trading in the red.


Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude tumbled 4.44 per cent to $101.92 per barrel.


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