The Indian equity benchmarks were facing heavy selling pressure on Monday and were on track to close lower for fifth session in a row on the back of a broad-based selling pressure. The benchmarks opened lower and extended losses dragged by losses in index heavyweights Reliance Industries, HDFC, Tata Consultancy Services, ICICI Bank, ITC and Axis Bank. The Sensex fell as much as 1,165 points and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday low of 14,667.
As of 2:46 pm, the Sensex was down 920 points at 49,969 and Nifty 50 index fell 264 points to 14,739.
Reliance Industries was top drag on the Sensex, the stock fell nearly 3 per cent to Rs 2,022 after the Supreme Court barred on Monday a final ruling by a tribunal reviewing Future Group’s $3.4 billion sale of retail assets until the top court hears objections from aggrieved partner Amazon.com Inc, news agency Reuters reported citing three sources..
Amazon appealed to the Supreme Court this month against Future Group’s sale to market leader Reliance Industries, accusing its partner of violating contracts by agreeing to the sale.
Reliance Industries alone wiped out 139 points from the Sensex, data from BSE showed.
Mahindra & Mahindra was top Nifty loser, the stock dropped 5 per cent to Rs 837. Dr Reddy’s Labs, Larsen & Toubro, Tech Mahindra, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, HDFC, TCS, SBI Life, Eicher Motors, Power Grid and Maruti Suzuki also fell between 3-4 per cent.
On the flipside, metal shares were outperforming in an otherwise weak session after copper prices topped $9,000 for first time in 10 year. Hindalco, JSW Steel and Tata Steel rose between 3-3.5 per cent.
Adani Ports, ONGC, HDFC Bank, Hero MotoCorp and Grasim Industries were also among the notable gainers.
All the 11 sector gauges barring the index of metal shares were trading lower led by the Nifty Media index’s 3 per cent fall. Nifty PSU Bank, Private Bank, IT, Pharma, Realty, Auto and Bank indices dropped between 1.5-3 per cent.
Mid- and small-cap shares were also facing selling pressure as Nifty Midcap 100 and Smallcap 100 indexes dropped over a per cent each.
The overall market breadth was positive as extremely negative as 1,953 shares were declining while 1,031 were advancing on the BSE.