Sensex Falls Over 500 Points, Nifty Ends Below 17,400 Dragged Reliance

The Indian equity benchmarks declined for second straight session on Monday dragged by losses in Reliance Industries, Infosys, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finance and ICICI Bank. The benchmarks staged a gap up opening but succumbed to selling pressure on account of profit booking after a sharp rally of over 4 per cent in the last four trading sessions, analysts said. The Sensex fell as much as 957 points from the day's highest level and Nifty 50 index touched and intraday low of 17,355 after hitting high of 17,640.

The Sensex declined 503 points to close at 58,283 and Nifty 50 index dropped 143 points to 17,368.

"Traders showed cautiousness with the reports that the government is unlikely to announce capital infusion for public sector banks (PSBs) in the upcoming Budget. Our research suggests that 58,000 will act as an important support level in the market. We can expect the market to trade in the range of 58,000-59,200," said Gaurav Garg, head of research at Capitalvia Global Research.

Tega Industries soared 68 per cent in its market debut. The stock opened at ₹ 760 rupees, compared with the offer price of ₹ 453, valuing the mining equipment maker at ₹ 1,039 crore.

Selling pressure was broad-based as all the 15 sector gauges, barring the measure of IT shares, ended lower led by the Nifty Media index's 1.8 per cent fall. Nifty Financial Services, FMCG, PSU Bank, Realty and Oil & Gas indices also fell between 0.7-1.3 per cent.

Mid- and small-cap shares also succumbed to profit taking as Nifty Midcap 100 index fell 0.25 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index declined 0.11 per cent.

Bajaj Finance was top Nifty loser, the stock fell 3 per cent to close at ₹ 7,230. Bajaj Finserv, Reliance Industries, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Consumer Products, Nestle India, Indian Oil, Britannia Industries, Hero MotoCorp, Coal India, HDFC Life and Eicher Motors also fell between 1.3-2.1 per cent.

On the flipside, Axis Bank, Tech Mahindra, SBI Life, Wipro, Hindalco, Maruti Suzuki, Power Grid, Titan and Divi's Labs were among the gainers.