Sensex Falls 400 Points, Nifty Below 8,850; Banking, IT Stocks Bleed

The BSE benchmark Sensex continued its southbound journey and fell over 400 points in the noon trades owing to selling pressure visible across the board.

 

The 50-share Nifty was trading below its important psychological level of 8,850led by selling pressure in heavyweights like HDFC, ICICI Bank, Infosys and Larsen & Toubro.

 

Selling pressure was visible across the board. The banking stocks were the worst hit in trades today with Bank Nifty falling nearly 2 per cent. Banking stocks like Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India, Bank of India and Bank of Baroda were the top losers, falling 1-3 per cent each.

 

The IT stocks came under the selling pressure after the IT bellwether Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) management sounded cautious about March quarter earnings. TCS said it continues to see weakness in insurance vertical, while identifying energy and telecom verticals as "problem areas".

 

This led to a spiral selling impact in the IT stocks with Infosys, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technonlogies and Wipro falling nearly 1-3 per cent each.

 

Capital goods, metal, auto, oil & gas and power stocks also succumbed to the selling pressure and were trading on a weak note.

 

Sesa Sterlite was the top loser from the Nifty basket. The stosk fell 4 per cent to Rs 202. Ultratech Cement, NTPC, Axis Bank, Hindalco, Tata Power and GAIL were also trading weaker by 2.5-3 per cent each.

 

Meanwhile, the broader markets were also trading on a weak note but were outperforming the benchmark indices. The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices were down 0.3 and 0.4 per cent each.

 

At 11:50 PM, the Sensex declined 358 points or 1.2 per cent at 29,091 and the Nifty was at 8,823, down 115 points.