Mumbai: In their worst single-day fall in over two months, Sensex tumbled 431 points and Nifty tanked 129 points on Tuesday on massive selling by foreign funds and retail investors in blue chips amid weak global cues.
All the sectoral indices led by realty, oil and gas and metal ended in the negative zone with strong profit-taking seen in recent outperforming sectors including banking, healthcare, capital goods, auto and IT stocks.
Besides, caution ahead of monthly expiry in the derivatives segment on Thursday saw participants reducing their positions, traders said.
Selling was heavier in small cap and midcap stocks with their indices falling up to 2.48 %, after posting handsome gains in the previous session.
The 30-share Sensex after remaining range-bound at start, dipped below the 27,000-mark as blue-chip stocks lost ground.
Selling intensified largely in tandem with a weak trend in the global markets and it finally settled 431.05 points, or 1.58 %, lower to close at 26,775.69. This is its worst drop since July 8 when Sensex had plummeted 517.97 points.
The 50-share Nifty dropped 128.75 points, or 1.58 %, to close below 8,100 mark at 8,017.55 after moving between 8,159.75 and 8,008.10 intra-day. Tuesday’s drop is also Nifty’s worst show since July 8 when it lost 163.95 points.
“Markets fell sharply on the back of profit booking and negative global cues. The selling pressure gained momentum after data released on Eurozone economic activity indicated continuing weakness in the region,” said Sanjeev Zarbade, Vice President- Private Client Group Research, Kotak Securities.
Stocks like Cipla, Tata Motors, Hindalco, Tata Steel and Tata Power were major laggards on Tuesday. TCS, Sun Pharma, SBI, RIL, ONGC, Mahindra and Mahindra, L&T, Infosys, ICICI Bank and Coal India fell sharply. Bucking the trend, stocks of Hindustan Unilever, ITC, Maruti Suzuki and NTPC gained.
Sectorally, the BSE Realty sector index suffered the most by losing 4.91 %, followed by Oil & Gas down 2.58 %, Capital Goods 2.40 % and Metal 2.33 %, among others.
Globally, major markets in Asia ended down and European markets were weak in their opening trades. A survey in China showed factory employment slumped to a 5-1/2-year low, which also unnerved investors.
Meanwhile, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 186.41 crore on Monday.