Sensex drops 368 pts in highly volatile trade dragged down by blue-chip bank shares

Mumbai: Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty ended lower in a highly volatile trade on Tuesday dragged down by blue-chip bank stocks and caution ahead of domestic and US inflation data.

The 30-share BSE Sensex dropped 368.49 points or 0.46 per cent to settle at 80,235.59. During the day, it hit a high of 80,997.67 and a low of 80,164.36, gyrating 833.31 points.

The 50-share NSE Nifty went lower by 97.65 points or 0.40 per cent to 24,487.40.

Investors are also awaiting cues from the US-Russia talks on August 15.

From the Sensex firms, Bajaj Finance, Trent, Hindustan Unilever, HDFC Bank, Eternal, Bajaj Finserv, ICICI Bank, and Bharat Electronics were among the laggards. However, Maruti, Tech Mahindra, Mahindra & Mahindra and NTPC were among the major gainers.

The BSE midcap gauge dipped 0.25 per cent and smallcap index edged marginally up by 0.04 per cent.

Among BSE sectoral indices, bankex dropped 0.83 per cent, capital goods (0.76 per cent), realty (0.75 per cent), telecommunication (0.46 per cent) and FMCG (0.44 per cent). Oil & gas, healthcare, metal, utilities, IT and BSE Focused IT were the gainers.

The rupee appreciated 12 paise to close at 87.63 against the US dollar on Tuesday amid encouraging domestic macro data and expectations of easing global trade tensions.

Foreign Institutional Investors offloaded equities worth Rs 1,202.65 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.