Sensex Crashes Over 1,100 Points, Nifty Trades Below 16,500; Maruti, Asian Paints Top Drags
New Delhi: The Indian equity indices fell sharply in afternoon deals on Wednesday amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis. Global stocks came under renewed pressure and oil prices jumped on worries about the impact of aggressive sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Brent crude futures surged $5.30, or 5 per cent, to $110.23, a level last seen in July 2014.
Overnight, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indexes closed about 1.6 per cent lower, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped nearly 1.8 per cent.
Back home, as of 12:50 pm, the benchmark BSE Sensex tanked 1,134 points or 2.02 per cent to 55,113; while the broader NSE Nifty dived 301 points or 1.79 per cent to 16,493.
Investors also turned cautious as the economic growth slowed to 5.4 per cent in the October-December quarter against an 8.5 per cent growth in the preceding quarter.
Mid-and small-cap shares were mixed as Nifty Midcap 100 index slipped 0.54 per cent up and small-cap shares edged up 0.12 per cent.
Most of the sector gauges -- compiled by the National Stock Exchange -- were trading in the red. Nifty Bank and Nifty Financial Services were underperforming the index by falling as much as 3.54 per cent and 3.14 per cent, respectively. However, Nifty Metal surged as much as 3.74 per cent.
On the stock-specific front, Maruti Sukuzi India was the top Nifty loser as the stock cracked 6.06 per cent to Rs 7,810. Asian Paints, Dr Reddy's, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank and Hero MotoCorp were also among the laggards.
On BSE, the overall market breadth was weak as 1,481 shares were advancing while 1,745 were declining.
On the 30-share BSE index, Maruti, Asian Paints, Dr Reddy's, ICICI Bank, HDFC twins (HDFC and HDFC Bank), Bajaj Finance and Kotak Mahindra Bank were among the top losers. Tata Steel, Titan, Nestle India, Reliance Industries and PowerGrid were trading in the green.
Sensex had jumped 389 points or 0.70 per cent to close at 56,247 on Monday, while Nifty had moved 136 points or 0.81 per cent higher to settle at 16,794. Domestic indices were closed on Tuesday due to Mahashivratri.
