Sensex Falls Over 250 Points From Day's High As Financial, Energy Stocks Drop

Domestic stock markets gave up early gains on Thursday, amid selling pressure in banking, financial services and energy stocks. The S&P BSE Sensex index dropped as much as 259.73 points from the strongest level of the day to hit 38,976.63 on the downside in early afternoon deals. The broader NSE Nifty 50 benchmark dropped to as low as 11,514.80, receding from an intraday high of 11,584.95. At 12:12 pm, the Sensex traded at 38,987.00, down 99.03 points - or 0.25 per cent - from its previous close, while the Nifty was up 5.10 points - or 0.04 per cent - at 11,540.10. (Track Sensex, Nifty)

ICICI Bank, Hindalco, Mahindra & Mahindra, Britannia and NTPC, trading between 1.31 per cent and 2.20 per cent lower, were the worst hit among the 25 percentage laggards in the 50-scrip Nifty basket. 

On the other hand, Bharti Infratel, Titan, Grasim, UPL and Eicher Motors, trading between 2.59 per cent and 6.81 per cent higher, were the top Nifty gainers.

Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank and HDFC were the biggest drags on the Sensex.

The Nifty Bank index - comprising stocks of 12 major lenders in the country - was down 1.02 per cent, having declined as much as 1.16 per cent earlier. 

Equities in other Asian markets pared early gains on Thursday amid growing worries about US-China relations.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside of Japan, which was up more than 0.5 per cent earlier in the session, slipped 0.1 per cent with Chinese and Hong Kong shares leading the losses. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.7 per cent while China's blue-chip index was 0.5 per cent lower.

European shares jumped in early trade on Thursday, with the United Kingdom's FTSE benchmark was last seen trading 1.35 per cent higher. France's CAC and Germany's DAX benchmarks were up 1.90 per cent and 2.07 per cent respectively.  

The E-Mini S&P 500 futures traded 0.22 per cent lower, indicating a lower start for US markets on Thursday.