Sensex Slumps Over 550 Points From Day's High; Telecom Shares Worst Hit

Domestic stock markets gave up all of their early gains in afternoon deals on Wednesday, with the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex index dropping more than 550 points from the highest level of the day. The broader NSE Nifty 50 index slid below its important psychological level of 11,100, weighed down by losses in Bharti Airtel, Tata Consultancy Services, ICICI Bank, SBI and NTPC, having climbed to as high as 11,259.55 earlier. Investors resorted to profit-booking at higher levels a day ahead of the expiration of derivatives contracts (futures and options) for the current month.

At 12:50 pm, the Sensex traded 161 points lower at 37,573, while the Nifty was down 46 points at 11,107.

Selling pressure was visible across the board, with sixteen of the 19 sectoral indices compiled by the BSE trading in the negative territory, led by the S&P BSE Telecom index, which slumped 7 per cent.

Pharma, IT, utilities, metal, banking and energy shares also faced selling pressure.

On the other hand, some fast-moving consumer goods stocks witnessed mild buying interest.

Mid- and small-cap shares also fell, with the Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices down 1 per cent and 0.4 per cent respectively.

Bharti Airtel slumped 7 per cent and Vodafone Idea plunged 10 per cent, after Reliance Jio on Tuesday launched postpaid plans starting at Rs 399 per month. Jio is offering subscription to Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney Plus Hotstar under its postpaid plans at no additional tariff, among other benefits.

Zee Entertainment was the top Nifty loser, down fell 7.3 per cent at Rs 183. TCS, NTPC, Bharti Infratel, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, IndusInd Bank JSW Steel, Power Grid, ONGC and SBI fell between 2 per cent and 5 per cent. On the other hand, Reliance Industries rose as much as 3 per cent after US-based KKR agreed to buy a 1.28 per cent stake in its retail arm, Reliance Retail Ventures, for Rs 5,550 crore.

Hindustan Unilever, Nestle, Titan, Infosys and Kotak Mahindra Bank were also among the notable gainers.