Sensex Drops Over 650 Points, Nifty Below 17,150 On Weak Global Markets

The Indian equity benchmarks moved sharply lower on Monday on the back of a broad-based selling pressure amid weak global markets. The Sensex fell as much as 826 points and Nifty 50 index briefly moved below its important psychological level of 17,100. HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, HDFC, Hindustan Unilever, ICICI Bank, Infosys and ITC were among the top drags on the Sensex.

As of 9:43 am, the Sensex was down 694 points at 57,498 and Nifty 50 index declined 213 points at 17,102.

Most of the Asian markets were trading lower with Japan's Nikkei down 0.7 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 2.14 per cent, Taiwan Weighted fell 1.4 per cent and South Korea's KOSPI declined 0.22 per cent

Good news on the economy remains bad news for Wall Street, as stocks fell sharply Friday on worries a still-strong U.S jobs market may actually make a recession more likely.

The S&P 500 ended 2.8 per cent lower after briefly dropping 3.3 per cent as traders weighed a government report showing employers hired more workers last month than economists expected. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.1 per cent and the Nasdaq composite lost 3.8 per cent.

Wall Street is worried the Federal Reserve could see that as proof the economy has yet to slow enough to get inflation under control. That could clear the way for the Fed to continue hiking interest rates aggressively, something that risks causing a recession if done too severely.

Back home, selling pressure was broad-based as all the 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the Nifty FMCG index's 1.7 per cent fall. Nifty Bank, Auto, Financial Services, Metal, Pharma, PSU Bank, Private Bank, Realty and Healthcare indices also fell over 1 per cent each.

Mid- and small-cap shares were also facing selling pressure as Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices fell over a per cent each.

Tata Motors was tp Nifty loser, the stock dropped 3.6 per cent to Rs 397. Hero MotoCorp, HDFC, Tata Consumer Durables, HDFC Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Aian Paints, SBI Life, Bajaj Finserv, Hindalco, Apollo Hospitals and Bajaj Auto also fell between 1.8-3.1 per cent.

On the flipside, Coal India, TCS and Power Grid were among the notable gainers.

The overall market breadth was negative as 2,043 shares were advancing while 966 were advancing on the BSE.