Last hour sell-off drags Sensex 289 pts lower; RIL, financials top losers

A selloff towards the fag end of Friday’s session dragged the benchmark indices lower after a range-bound trade for most part of the day.

Reliance Industries and banking stocks remained the top drags for the indices with the Bank Nifty dipping 1.17 per cent.

The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex ended 289 points, or 0.73 per cent, lower at 39,452, after touching an intra-day low of 39,363. Only five out of the 30 BSE constituents ended the day in the green, with IndusInd, Bharti Airtel, Kotak Bank, Axis Bank, and Tata Motors taking the deepest cuts.

The broader Nifty50 index tumbled 91 points to 11,823. About 808 shares advanced, 1686 shares declined, and 144 shares remained unchanged on the NSE.

On a weekly basis, both the Sensex slipped 0.5 per cent each.

All the Nifty sectoral indices ended Friday’s session with losses. Nifty Realty, down 2.1 per cent, was among the top losers, while Nifty Bank,Nifty Auto, Nifty FMCG, and Nifty Private Bank all slipped over 1 per cent.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE MidCap index was down 1 per cent to 14,721, while the S&P BSE SmallCap ended the day 110 points, or 0.76 per cent, lower at 14,366.

RITES shares rallied 6.05 per cent to Rs 293.65 on the BSE on Friday after the company said its board will meet on June 24, 2019 to consider bonus issue proposal.

Gruh Finance shares slipped 8 per cent to Rs 285 on the BSE in early morning trade after the promoter Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) sold more than 4 per cent of the company’s paid-up capital in the open market. However, the stock ended the day 5.4 per cent lower at Rs 291.85.

Shares of Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) companies continued to reel under pressure, falling by up to 40 per cent in the past seven trading sessions on the back of negative news flow.

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