Market Close: Markets sink; realty stocks tumble

Indian equity markets were in a sea of red on Thursday as markets failed to get any relief from the government with regards to the FPI surcharge. The benchmark index BSE Sensex lost 587.44 points to close at 36,472.93, down by 1.59 per cent. The Nifty50 closed at 10,737.75, down by 180.95 points or 1.67 per cent as bears were in action throughout the day.

HDFC twins pulled down the Sensex considerably. Index heavyweights that pulled down the Sensex included HDFC Bank contributed negative 110.05 points and HDFC contributed negative 86.80 points, followed by ICICI Bank negative 82.14 points, Reliance negative 77.01 points; whereas Bajaj Finance, SBI and Kotak Bank contributed more than negative 30 points each. While on the other hand, TCS contributed positive 29.95 points. HUL, TechM and HCL Tech supported the index marginally.

The popular Nifty Bank also bleeded by 670.0 points or 2.38 per cent at 27,049.00. The stock that contributed most to the downfall were HDFC Bank contributing negative 234.84 points and ICICI Bank negative 173.16 points, whereas SBI and Kotak Bank contributed more than negative 80 points each.

All sectoral indices expect Nifty IT index closed in the red. Nifty IT was up by 0.23 per cent, while Nifty Realty tumbled by 6.73 per cent on Thursday. Nifty Metal was down by 3.64 per cent and Nifty Media down by 2.93 per cent.

On Nifty, top gainers were Britannia up by 3.42 per cent, followed by Dr. Reddy, ITC, UPL and InfraTel up by around 1 per cent. Among the top losers were Indiabull Hsg down by 7.72 per cent, followed by Bajaj Finserv, Vedanta, Adani Ports and Bajaj Finance down by around 2 per cent each.