Sensex Falls 450 Points From Day's High; Nifty Trades Below 15,700

The Indian equity benchmarks erased intraday gains on the back of selling pressure in HDFC Bank, Infosys, HDFC, Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever and Tata Steel. The Sensex fell as much as 450 points from the day's highest level and Nifty 50 index fell below its important psychological level of 15,700. The sharp fall in equity benchmarks came after US stock futures - Dow Jones Futures contracts declined 0.5 per cent or 155 points indicating that US markets will open lower later in the day. The benchmarks staged a gap up opening wherein the Sensex rose as much as 314 point and Nifty rose above 15,700.

As of 1:27 pm, the Sensex fell 10 points to 52,375 and Nifty 50 index slipped 9 points to 16,680.

European markets also trading with a negative bias. Germany's DAX fell 0.2 per cent, France's CAC40 index declined 0.51 per cent and England's FTSE100 index slipped 0.5 per cent.

"We witnessed a bounce back in the market from the support level of 15650. 15800 will be a keep resistance level. If the market breaches and sustains above the level, we can witness a positive movement in the market till the level of 16,100-16,150. On the sectoral front, all the major sectors have been trading in a positive zone. Shreecem and JSW Steel are the top gainers while Bharti Airtel and BPCL are the top losers on Nifty," Gaurav Garg, Head of Research, CapitalVia Global Research told NDTV.

Six of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty Realty index's over 3 per cent gain. Nifty Private Bank, PSU Bank, Auto, Financial Services and Bank indices also rose in range of 0.2-0.4 per cent.

On the other hand, Nifty IT, FMCG, Media, Metal and Pharma indices were trading with a negative bias.

Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices rose 0.5 per cent each.

UltraTech Cement was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose nearly 3 per cent to Rs 7,086. Shree Cements, JSW Steel, Grasim Industries, Tata Consumer Products, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, UPL, IndusInd Bank and Maruti Suzuki also rose between 1-2 per cent.

On the flipside, Bharat Petroleum, Bharti Airtel, Adani Ports, HDFC Bank, Hindalco, Power Grid, Hindustan Unilever, HDFC, Asian Paints and Infosys were among the losers.

The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 2,129 shares were advancing while 1,112 were declining on the BSE.