Sensex Drops Over 700 Points, Nifty Below 14,400; Metal Shares Worst Hit

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes extended losses in noon deals on the back of a broad-based selling pressure on account of profit booking. Metal, banking, financial services and realty shares were among the worst hit in trade so far. The benchmarks opened lower taking cues from other Asian markets and extended losses wherein the Sensex fell as much as 716 points and Nifty 50 index fell below its important psychological level of 14,400. Reliance Industries was the top drag on the Sensex ahead of its December quarter earnings.

As of 1:46 pm, the Sensex fell 675 points to 48,945 and Nifty 50 index dropped 200 points or 1.4 per cent to 14,390.

Nine of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the Nifty Metal index’s 4 per cent drop. Nifty Bank, Financial Services, Media, Pharma, PSU Bank and Private bank indices also fell between 1.4-2.6 per cent.

On the other hand, auto shares were witnessing buying interest.

Mid- and small-cap shares also succumbed to selling pressure as Nifty Midcap 100 index dropped 1 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index declined 0.5 per cent.

Among the individual shares, JK Tyre Industries rose as much as 15.4 per cent to hit fresh 52-week high of Rs 133.40 on the BSE after it reported strong earnings in quarter ended December 2020. The Delhi-based tyre maker in an exchange filing post market hours on Thursday said that its consolidated profit came in at Rs 224 crore compared with Rs 11 crore during the corresponding period a year ago.

SBI Card gained as much as 4 per cent while Biocon fell 9 per cent after announcing their December third quarter results.

Hindalco was top Nifty loser, the stock fell 5 per cent to Rs 236. Axis Bank, JSW Steel, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, Asian Paints, Coal India, State Bank of India, NTPC, Tech Mahindra, Reliance Industries and UPL also fell between 2-5 per cent.

On the flipside, Bajaj Auto rose 10 per cent to record high of Rs 4,130 a day after the two-wheeler maker’s profit in October-December period rose 23 per cent to Rs 1,556 crore against Rs 1,262 crore during the same quarter last year.

Hero MotoCorp, Eicher Motors, Tata Motors, Hindustan Unilever, TCS and Maruti Suzuki were also among the gainers.

The overall market breadth was extremely negative as 2,043 shares were declining while 817 were advancing on the BSE.