Sensex Falls Over 300 Points, Nifty Below 15,700 Dragged By Banks

The Indian equity benchmarks edged lower on Friday mirroring losses in other Asian markets dragged by heavyweights like Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Infosys. The Sensex fell as much as 399 points and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday low of 15,650.

As of 9:34 am, the Sensex was down 288 points at 52,730 and Nifty 50 index fell 83 points to 15,697.

Japan's Nikkei fell 0.9 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 0.62 per cent, Taiwan Weighted fell 0.85 per cent and South Korea's KOSPI fell 0.45 per cent.

Stocks fell again on Wall Street Thursday, closing out the worst quarter for the market since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020.

The S&P 500 fell and is now down 21 per cent since hitting a record high at the beginning of the year, having entered a bear market earlier in June. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq also fell.

Back home, ten of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the Nifty Bank index's nearly 1 per cent decline. Nifty Financial Services, IT, Pharma, Auto, private Bank, PSU Bank and Consumer Durable indexes also fell between 0.3-0.9 per cent.

On the other hand, select realty, FMCG, metal and media shares were witnessing buying interest.

Mid- and small-cap shares were trading flat as Nifty Midcap 100 index was little changed while Nifty Smallcap 100 index rose 0.2 per cent.

Dr Reddy's Labs was top Nifty loser, the stock fell 1.95 per cent to Rs 4,308. Titan, Tata Motors, ONGC, HDFC, Bajaj Auto, Divi's Labs, Mahindra & Mahindra, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank also fell between 1-1.9 per cent.

On the flipside, UPL, Shree Cements, Cipla, Bharat Petroleum, HDFC Life, SBI Life, Asian Paints and IndusInd Bank were among the gainers.

The overall market breadth was neutral as 1,279 shares were advancing while 1,299 were declining on the BSE.