Mumbai: Benchmark Sensex declined by nearly 412 points in a volatile session on Thursday due to selling in banking, FMCG and auto shares triggered by escalating tensions between India and Pakistan.
The 30-share Sensex declined by 411.97 points or 0.51 per cent to close at 80,334.81 with 23 of its constituents ending in the red. The index opened higher and traded in a range in the first half of the session. The index hit a high of 80,927.99 in late-morning deals.
However, the barometer lost momentum in the afternoon session as selling emerged in FMCG, auto, and select banking shares.
The NSE Nifty closed lower by 140.60 points or 0.58 per cent to 24,273.80.
The market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms eroded by Rs 5,00,037.74 crore to Rs 4,18,50,596.04 crore ($4.93 trillion).
Indian Armed forces foiled attempts by the Pakistani military to engage a number of military targets in Northern and Western India using drones and missiles last night and destroyed a Pakistani air defence system in Lahore, officials said on Thursday.
The Pakistani military attempted to target Awantipura, Srinagar, Jammu, Pathankot, Amritsar, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Adampur, Bhatinda, Chandigarh, Nal, Phalodi, Uttarlai, and Bhuj, they said.
These were neutralised by the Integrated Counter Unmanned Aircraft System (Grid and Air Defence systems), the defence ministry said.
From the Sensex firms, Eternal, Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti, Bajaj Finance, Tata Steel, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finserv, Asian Paints, Power Grid and SBI were among the laggards. Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, Titan, HCL Tech, Tata Motors, Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services were the gainers.
The BSE midcap gauge dropped 1.90 per cent and smallcap index declined 1.05 per cent.
Among sectoral indices, realty tanked 2.60 per cent, oil & gas (1.98 per cent), auto (1.92 per cent), power (1.86 per cent), utilities (1.85 per cent), commodities (1.67 per cent), consumer discretionary (1.58 per cent) and services (1.57 per cent). IT and BSE Focused IT were the only gainers.