Sensex tanks 984 points, ends at 48,782; financials crack; Nifty Pharma up 1%
It was a freaky Friday for Dalal Street investors as bears came roaring amid weakness in Asian markets and unabated rise in Covid-19 cases along with hiccups in vaccination drive back home. Profit booking too weighed on markets following four straight sessions of gains that led to a 4 per cent rally in the benchmark indices this week.
The benchmark indices eased 2 per cent today amid massive selling in all but pharma sector. The Nifty Bank and Financial Services indices took the sharpest knock and dropped 3 per cent each while the Nifty FMCG, Auto, IT, and Realty indices slipped up to 1.5 per cent. The Nifty Pharma index bucked the trend and gained settled 1 per cent higher.
In effect, NSE’s 50-share index erased 264 points to close at 14,631 levels dragged mainly by HDFC (down 4.2 per cent), HDFC Bank (4 per cent), ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Asian Paints, M&M, TCS, Tata Motors, and Adani Ports. The losses were, however, capped by gains in ONGC (4 per cent), Coal India, Divi’s Labs, Grasim, and Indian Oil Corporation.
On the BSE, the Sensex index nursed losses in 25 of the 30 constituents and ended at 48,782 levels today, down 983.5 points.
On a weekly basis, both the frontline indices snapped their 3-week losing streak and added around 2 per cent higher each.
SmallCap scrips, meanwhile, remained resilient in the weak market with stocks such as Uttam Sugar, Tata Metaliks,Jay Bharat Maruti, and Confidence Petroleum India rallying between 174 per cent and 16 per cent. At the index level, the S&P BSE SmallCap settled just 0.07 per cent lower.
The MidCap index, on the other hand, slipped 0.65 per cent.