The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes ended sharply lower on Friday weighed down by weakness in heavyweights like HDFC, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, ITC and Kotak Mahindra Bank. The benchmarks opened higher and were trading in a narrow range. However, weakness in banking shares dragged the benchmarks sharply lower in afternoon trading. The Sensex fell as much as 886 points and Nifty dropped 255 points from day’s highest level to hit an intraday low of 11,111.
The Sensex ended 433 points or 1.13 per cent lower at 37,877 and Nifty fell 122 points or 1.08 per cent to close at 11,178.
Weakness in HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank wiped out over 200 points from the Sensex
Nine of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended lower led by the Nifty Bank index’s nearly 3 per cent fall. Private banking, financial services, auto, FMCG and PSU banking indexes also fell between 1-2.5 per cent each.
On the other hand, pharma and metal shares witnessed buying interest during the session.
Mid- and small-cap shares also witnessed selling pressure as the Nifty Midcap 100 index dropped 0.8 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index tumbled 1.2 per cent.
Eicher Motors was top Nifty loser, the stock fell 7 per cent to close at Rs 20,124 after it reported loss of Rs 55 crore in June quarter as against a profit of Rs 452 crore during the same quarter last year.
Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance, State Bank of India, ITC, HDFC Bank, HCL Technologies, Indian Oil, IndusInd Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank also fell between 2-5 per cent each.
On the flipside, JSW Steel, Coal India, Sun Pharma, Cipla, NTPC, Titan, Tata Steel and Shree Cements were among the gainers.
The overall market breadth was negative as negative as 1,628 shares ended lower while 1,088 ended higher on the BSE.
