Sensex Falls 600 Points From Day’s High After Tensions Flare Up Between Russia, Ukraine

The Indian equity benchmarks erased early gains with Sensex dropping nearly 600 points from day’s highest level and Nifty 50 index falling below its important psychological level of 17,300 on reports of spurt in geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Russian news agency Sputnik reported that Ukraine violated ceasefire after Ukrainian Armed Forces fired mortar shells and grenades on self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic at 2:30 am GMT. Meanwhile, analysts warned for heightened volatility during the session owing to weekly expiry of index futures and option contracts. 

The Sensex was down 68 points at 57,928 and Nifty 50 index fell 9 points to 17,314 by 9:50 am.

"In yesterday’s session, after a positive move in the first half. Nifty sharply pared gains in the second half because of global cues. On technical grounds, Nifty has an immediate resistance at 17,450. If Nifty closes above that, further upside can be expected towards 17,570-17,700 mark. On the flip side 17,230-17,100 will act as strong support levels," brokerage firm Nirmal Bang said.

"Nifty faces an immediate resistance around 38,330 levels on the upside and on a decisive close above expect a rise to 38,750-39,000. There is an immediate support at 37,630-37,350 levels," Nirmal Bang added.

Eight of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty Auto index's nearly 1 per cent gain. Select oil & gas, FMCG, realty and pharma shares were witnessing buying interest.

On the other hand, Banking, Financial Services, IT, Pharma, PSU Bank and Private Bank indices were trading with a negative bias.

Mid- and small-cap shares were trading flat as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.1 per cent while Nifty Smallcap 100 index slipped 0.04 per cent.

Axis Bank was top Nifty loser, the stock fell 1.6 per cent to Rs 784. IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Bharti Airtel, UltraTech Cement, Britannia Industries, Britannia Industries, HDFC Bank, SBI Life and ITC also fell between .5-1.4 per cent.

On the flipside, Cipla, Tata Consumer Products, Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, ONGC, Hero MotoCorp, Power Grid, HDFC, Eicher Motors, Tech Mahindra and Divi's Labs were among the gainers.

The overall market breadth was neutral as 1,468 shares were advancing while 1,583 were declining on the BSE.