Bears tighten grip, Sensex & Nifty crash; Bank Nifty slips 5 per cent; Eveready Industries locks in at upper circuit
The domestic markets ended the month of February with a 'thud' as investors turned bearish with red being the prominent colour all over BSE & NSE on Friday.
Sensex plunged 1,939.32 points or by 3.80 per cent to settle at 49,099.99 levels while Nifty tumbled 568.20 points or 3.76 per cent to close at 14,529.15 levels.
Indian equities witnessed a massive sell-off during today's trading session with banking & financial stocks taking the lead.
Panic in global bond markets led to a sharp rise in yields, which spooked investors amid fears of interest rate cycle reversal. In its previous session, Wall Street witnessed strong bearish investor sentiments.
In the global markets, as Asian-Pacific stock witnessed selling pressure, prominent Asian indices such as Shanghai Composite index, Hang Seng, Nikkei and KOSPI settled in red, down by 2.12 per cent, 3.64 per cent, 3.99 per cent and 2.80 per cent, respectively. Similarly, in the European markets, indices such as FTSE 100, DAX, and CAC 40 were also seen trading in a negative territory, down by 0.41 per cent, 0.19 per cent, and 0.38 per cent, respectively.
With all 30 stocks in Sensex basket declining, Sensex losers consisted of ONGC that tumbled 6.60 per cent, Mahindra & Mahindra plunged 6.35 per cent, Axis Bank slumped 5.98 per cent, Kotak Mahindra Bank fell by 5.96 per cent, Bajaj Finserv inched lower by 5.95 per cent, Power Grid went down by 5.69 per cent, HDFC decreased by 5.40 per cent, Bajaj Finance weakened by 5.28 per cent, etc.
Amongst sectoral indices on BSE, Bankex was the biggest loser that declined by 4.87 per cent. BSE Telecom index also closed in red, down by 3.85 per cent, followed by indices such as BSE Oil & Gas, BSE Auto, and BSE Information Technology, which slipped by 3.72 per cent, 3.10 per cent, and 2.26 per cent, respectively.
BSE Small-Cap index was down by 0.74 per cent while BSE Mid-Cap index declined by 1.75 per cent.