Sensex Falls 174 Points, Nifty Settles Below 11,500

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 Indexes resumed their downward slide after a flat close in yesterday's session led by declines in Bajaj Finance, Larsen & Toubro, Axis Bank, Tata Consultancy Services, Hindustan Unilever and State Bank of India. The S&P BSE Sensex fell over 250 points and Nifty 50 Index touched intraday low of 11,475.65.

The Sensex ended 174 points lower at 38,557 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index dropped 0.49 per cent or 57 points to 11,499.

All the 19 sector gauges compiled by BSE ended lower led by the S&P BSE Industrials Index's 1.5 per cent decline. Auto, metal, oil & gas and realty sector gauges also declined between 1 and 1.5 per cent each.

Mid- and small-cap shares also witnessed selling pressure as the S&P BSE MidCap and S&P BSE SmallCap Indexes dropped 0.75 per cent each.

Bajaj Finance was top loser in the Nifty 50 basket of shares, the stock fell 5.11 per cent to Rs 3,419. Indiabulls Housing Finance, Bajaj Finserv, Tata Steel, Bharat Petroleum, JSW Steel, Tata Motors and Axis Bank also declined between 2.3 and 4.3 per cent each.

On the flipside, Yes Bank, Coal India, Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and HDFC Bank were among the gainers.

The overall market breadth was negative as 1,496 shares closed lower while 946 closed higher on the BSE.