The Indian equity benchmarks came off record highs in afternoon trading as traders were seen booking profits in recent outperforming private banking, financial services, IT and media stocks. The Sensex fell as much as 465 points from record high of 52,516.76 and Nifty 50 index briefly fell below important psychological level of 13,300. ICICI Bank, Infosys, Axis Bank, TCS, Asian Paints and Bajaj Finance were among the top drags on the Sensex.
As of 1:00 pm, Sensex was down 60 points at 52,094 and Nifty 50 index slipped 8 points to 15,306.
Seven of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the Nifty IT index’s over 1 per cent decline. Nifty Bank, Private Bank, Financial Services, FMCG and Media indexes also fell between 0.6-1 per cent.
On the other hand, Metal and PSU Banking shares were witnessing buying interest.
Mid- and small-cap stocks were trading on a muted note as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.1 per cent while Nifty Smallcap 100 index declined 0.2 per cent.
ICICI Bank was top Nifty loser, the stock fell 2.5 per cent to Rs 657. Axis Bank, Nestle India, Eicher Motors, Infosys, Asian Paints, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Motors, Titan, Bajaj Finance and Divi’s Labs also fell between 0.7-2.4 per cent.
On the flipside, Power Grid, ONGC, Hindalco, Tata Steel, NTPC, JSW Steel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Reliance Industries and UltraTech Cement were among the gainers.
The overall market breadth was negative as 1,617 shares were declining while 1,232 were advancing on the BSE.