Markets tumble after 4-days of record rally

Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty tumbled on Friday as investors rushed to book profits after four days of record-breaking rally and the global sell-off triggered by an IT outage that caused devices to crash globally.

The 30-share BSE Sensex hit its new all-time high of 81,587.76 in the initial trade but failed to carry forward the winning momentum and tanked 738.81 points or 0.91 per cent to settle below the 81,000-mark at 80,604.65.

The NSE Nifty tumbled 269.95 points or 1.09 per cent and ended at 24,530.90 after hitting its fresh record peak of 24,854.80 during the opening bell. During the day, it declined 292.7 points or 1.18 per cent to 24,508.15.

Among the Sensex pack, Tata Steel tumbled over 5 per cent while JSW Steel tanked nearly 5 per cent.

Tata Motors, NTPC, UltraTech Cement, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Finance, Power Grid, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Reliance Industries were the other major laggards.

Infosys climbed nearly 2 per cent after the IT major reported a 7 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 6,368 crore in the April-June quarter and raised its growth outlook for the current financial year, signalling an improvement in the IT segment.

ITC, Asian Paints and HCL Technologies were the other gainers.

In the broader market, the BSE midcap gauge tanked 2.31 per cent and smallcap index dropped 2.22 per cent. All the indices ended lower, with metal plunging 4.11 per cent, commodities tanking 3.07 per cent, oil & gas (2.87 per cent), power (2.67 per cent), auto (2.53 per cent), utilities (2.51 per cent), realty (2.44 per cent) and services (2.42 per cent).

The rupee depreciated 7 paise to settle at its all-time low of 83.70 against the US dollar on Friday, weighed down by strong American currency and muted trend in domestic

equities.