Sensex Falls Over 250 Points, Nifty Below 11,500

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 were trading in the negative territory by afternoon, led by losses in Bajaj Finance and Tata Motors. The Sensex switched direction at least six times before falling again while the Nifty 50 index touched high of 11,593.70 and low of 11,475.65. Analysts say that the traders and investors are watching out as to how the earnings season pans out which began with TCS reporting its first quarter earnings.

At 2:40 pm, the Sensex traded 221.50 points or 0.57 per cent lower at 38,509.32, while the Nifty was down 0.59 per cent or 67.70 points at 11,488.20.

Market breadth favoured sharp losses as 1473 shares were declining on the BSE. On the National Stock Exchange, 1119 shares were declining.

Prominent laggards on the NSE included Bajaj Finance, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Indiabulls Housing Finance and JSW Steel, struggling with losses of between 3.26 per cent and 4.18 per cent. 

TCS shares declined nearly 3 per cent to intraday low of Rs 2,071.30 on the NSE despite the country's largest software services provider reported a net profit of Rs 8,131 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2019, beating analysts' estimates.

Shares of InterGlobe Aviation, promoter of the budget airline IndiGo, fell as much as 19 per cent on Wednesday after one of the co-founders  alleged violation of corporate governance rules at the parent group. ndiGo co-founder Rakesh Gangwal on Tuesday asked the country's securities regulator to intervene in the matter, a move that suggests that a previously reported row between him and fellow co-founder Rahul Bhatia was escalating.

Sixteen of 19 sector gauges compiled by BSE were trading lower led by the S&P BSE Indistrials Index's 0.81 per cent decline. Auto, Basic Materials, Information Technology, Telecom, Capital Goods, Metal and Realty sector gauges also declined between 0.45 and 0.7 per cent each.

Mid- and small-cap share were trading on a muted note as the S&P BSE MidCap Index dropped 0.2 per cent while S&P BSE SmallCap Index was trading on a flat note.

The government is due to release data on industrial production and consumer inflation on Friday. On the same day, Infosys will be releasing its earnings for the quarter ended June 30.

Equities in other Asian markets inched ahead with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan advancing 0.2 per cent after three sessions of losses. South Korea shares climbed 0.6 per cent, but Japan's Nikkei benchmark dropped 0.15 per cent. 

Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow ended down 0.08 per cent, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq added 0.12 per cent and 0.54 per cent respectively.

The Sensex had ended up 10.25 points at 38,730.82 on Tuesday, after shedding 1,187.49 points, or 2.98 per cent - in the past two sessions. The 50-scrip Nifty index fell 390.85 points - or 3.27 per cent - in the three-day period.

(With inputs from Reuters)