The Bank index was the top sectoral loser on the BSE, shedding over 2 per cent.
The benchmark indices have slipped more than a per cent in the afternoon session to trade near the lows of the day, as fears surrounding the mounting Covid cases came back to haunt the market participants after a four-day rally. At 1:45 pm, the BSE Sensex was trading at 49,064.45, lower by 700.05 points or 1.33 per cent and the NSE Nifty was at 14,715.25, down 163.45 points or 1.30 per cent. The Bank index was the top sectoral loser on the BSE, shedding over 2 per cent.
The BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap indices however continued to outperform their largecap peers and were trading flat.
Meanwhile, India posted a record daily rise in coronavirus cases of 386,452 on Friday, while deaths from COVID-19 jumped by 3,498 over the last 24 hours, according to health ministry data.
On the stock-specific front, the HDFC twins HDFC and HDFC Bank had dived by nearly 4 per cent on the BSE, while ICICI Bank, SBI and Kotak Mahindra Bank shed around 2 per cent each. Hindustan Unilever, Tata Motors and Hindalco were the other significant losers among the BSE stocks.
On the other hand, ONGC, Divi’s Lab, Coal India and Grasim bucked the weak trend, registering gains of 1-4 per cent each on the BSE. And Reliance Industries was trading lower by 0.8 per cent at Rs 2007 ahead its results.