The Indian equity benchmarks extended losses after staging a gap down opening on Monday dragged by losses in index heavyweights like HDFC twins, Infosys, ICICI Bank, Larsen & Toubro, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bajaj Finance and Hindustan Unilever amid weak global cues. The Sensex fell as much as 1,155 points and Nifty 50 index broke below its important psychological level of 17,200.
As of 1:51 pm, the Sensex tumbled 1,148 points or 1.95 per cent to 57,502 and Nifty 50 index fell 337 points or 1.92 per cent to 17,179.
Asian share markets mostly eased on Monday after stunningly strong U.S. jobs data soothed concerns about the global economy but also added to the risk of an aggressive tightening by the Federal Reserve.
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Geopolitics also remained a worry as the White House warned Russia could invade Ukraine any day and French President Emmanuel Macron prepared for a trip to Moscow, news agency Reuters reported.
Back home, investor sentiment was shaken by continuous selling of Indian shares by foreign institutional investors. FIIs sold shares worth Rs 2,268 crore on Friday.
Among the individual shares, State Bank of India jumped nearly 2 per cent to Rs 540 after its net proft jumped 62 per cent to Rs 8,432 crore in December quarter. Its net interest income or the difference between interest earned on loans and interest expended on deposits advanced 6.5 per cent to Rs 30,687 crore versus Rs 28,820 crore in the year ago period.
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Bank of Baroda climbed 10 per cent to Rs 115 after it reported doubling of its net profit to Rs 2,197 crore on a standalone basis in the quarter ended in December 2021. The lender had posted a net profit of Rs 1,061 crore in the same quarter a year ago.
Shares of the country's leading steel maker - Tata Steel - rose as much as 3.26 per cent to hit an intraday high of Rs 1,214.45 after its net profit in December quarter rose 79 per cent to Rs 7,683 crore versus Rs 4,285 crore in the same quarter last financial year. Its revenue from operations jumped 37 per cent to Rs 31,623 crore from Rs 22,870 crore in the year ago period.
On consolidated basis, Tata Steel's revenue from operations came in at Rs 60,525 crore, up 46 per cent annually and its profit more than doubled to Rs 9,598 crore versus Rs 4,011 crore in the same period last year.
HDFC Bank was top Nifty loser, the stock fell 3.55 per cent to Rs 1,470. HDFC Life, Larsen & Toubro, Bajaj Finance, SBI Life, Hero MotoCorp, Tata Consumer Products, Britannia Industries, Titan and HDFC also fell between 2.75-3.5 per cent.
On the flipside, ONGC, Power Grid, NTPC, Coal India and UltraTech Cement were among the notable gainers.
The overall market breadth was negative as 2,029 shares were advancing while 1,401 were advancing on the BSE.
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