Sensex tanks 700 points amid selloff in telecom, tech stocks

Mumbai: Equity benchmark Sensex plummeted over 700 points to sink below the 74,000 level and Nifty retreated from a record high on Friday as investors pared exposure to telecom, capital goods and tech stocks.

Heavy selling pressure in Reliance Industries, L&T and HDFC Bank counters also pulled indices down, traders said.

The 30-share BSE Sensex dropped 732.96 points or 0.98 per cent to settle at 73,878.15 after soaring 484.07 points earlier in the day. From its intra-day high of 75,095.18, the benchmark tanked 1,627.45 points to the day’s low of 73,467.73.

The NSE Nifty also declined 172.35 points or 0.76 per cent to 22,475.85. The benchmark hit a record 22,794.70 in the early trade, up 146.5 points or 0.64 per cent.

The market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies eroded by Rs 2,25,543.41 crore to Rs 4,06,24,224.49 crore ($4.89 trillion). On the weekly front, the BSE benchmark climbed 147.99 points or 0.20 per cent. The NSE Nifty advanced 55.9 points or 0.24 per cent. From the Sensex basket, Larsen & Toubro, Maruti, Reliance Industries, Nestle, Bharti Airtel, UltraTech Cement, Kotak Mahindra Bank and JSW Steel were among the major laggards.

Bajaj Finance climbed nearly 1 per cent higher. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has lifted restrictions on Bajaj Finance on sanctioning and disbursal of loans through eCOM and Insta EMI Card, the company said in a regulatory filing on Thursday.

Bajaj Finserv, Mahindra & Mahindra, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and Infosys were among the other gainers.

In the broader market, the BSE smallcap gauge declined 0.55 per cent and the midcap index dipped 0.21 per cent.

Among the indices, telecommunication tanked 1.42 per cent, realty (1.09 per cent), services (1.01 per cent), teck (0.96 per cent), consumer discretionary (0.71 per cent), IT (0.64 per cent) and commodities (0.29 per cent). In contrast, Healthcare and metal were the gainers.