Sensex Falls Over 350 Points; Metal, Banking Shares Worst Hit

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes extended losses in noon deals weighed down by selling pressure in banking, metal, auto and real estate shares ahead of weekly expiry of index future and option contracts. The benchmarks staged a gap down opening following weak global cues amid concerns of economic recovery worldwide. In noon trading the Sensex dropped as much as 355 points and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday low of 11,505.75.

As of 12:16 pm, the Sensex traded 297 points lower at 39,005 and Nifty was down 88 points at 11,516.

The markets were witnessing heightened volatility as the India VIX spiked 4.3 per cent.

All the 11 sector gauges compiled by National Stock Exchange, barring the gauge of information technology companies, were trading lower led by the Nifty Metal index's nearly 2 per cent decline. Nifty Bank, Auto, Financial Services, Realty and PSU Bank indexes also fell around 1 per cent.

Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing selling pressure as the Nifty Midcap 100 index dropped 0.53 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index fell 0.73 per cent.

Among the individual shares, Happiest Minds shares made a blockbuster debut on stock exchanges. The stock got listed at a premium of 111.4 per cent at Rs 351 on the BSE against the issue price of Rs 166. Happiest Minds outperformed IRCTC and DMart, which had delivered returns of just a little over 100 per cent on debut.

Happiest Minds Technologies' Rs 702-crore IPO was over-subscribed by a whopping 150.98 times, making it one of the most subscribed share offerings in recent history.

Hindalco was top Nifty loser, the stock dropped 4 per cent to Rs 176. Tata Motors, Shree Cements, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Auto, Bajaj Finance, ICICI Bank, Power Grid, HDFC Life, JSW Steel, Maruti Suzuki and TCS also fell between 1-3 per cent.

On the flipside, Dr Reddy's Labs was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 3 per cent to Rs 4,763 after it announced launch of eye allergy drop medicine in the US market.

Zee Entertainment, HCL Technologies, Asian Paints, BPCL, Infosys, Coal India, Hero MotoCorp and Titan were also among the gainers.

The overall market breadth was negative as 1,515 shares were trading lower while 936 were among the gainers on the BSE.