The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 index snapped their three-day winning streak as investors’ booked profits at higher levels amid weak global cues. The benchmarks staged a gap down opening but recovered partially from lower levels in afternoon trading. During the session Nifty touched an intraday low of 14,980 and high of 15,200 while the Sensex fell as much as 905 points at the day’s lowest level. HDFC, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank were among the biggest drags on the Sensex.
The Sensex ended 599 points or 1.2 per cent lower at 50,846 and Nifty 50 index tumbled 165 points or 1 per cent to end at 15,081.
Eleven of 19 sector gauges compiled by the BSE ended lower led by the S&P BSE Metal index’s over 2 per cent decline.
Banking, oil & gas, telecom, information technology and energy indices also closed lower in the range of 0.51.5 per cent.
On the other hand, power, consumer durables and utilities shares witnessed a mild buying interest.
Mid- and small-cap shares outperformed their larger peers as Midcap index rose 0.5 per cent and Smallcap index rose 0.8 per cent.
JSW Steel, HDFC, Hindalco, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Bajaj Finserv, Axis Bank, Larsen & Toubro and HDFC Bank were among the top Nifty losers.
On the flipside, UltraTech Cement, Adani Ports, Shree Cement, Grasim, Dr Reddy’s Labs, SBI Life and Wipro were among the notable gainers.