Sensex tumbles over 1,000pts

Mumbai: Falling for the fourth straight day, benchmark Sensex tanked 1,017 points to close at a two-week low on Friday due to selling in IT, oil & gas and PSU bank shares triggered by weak global trends and foreign fund outflows.

The 30-share BSE Sensex tumbled 1,017.23 points or 1.24 per cent to settle at 81,183.93, the lowest closing level since August 23. As many as 24 Sensex shares closed in the red, while six advanced. During the day, it plunged 1,219.23 points or 1.48 per cent to 80,981.93. The NSE Nifty dropped 292.95 points or 1.17 per cent to close at 24,852.15, its third day of decline.

Among the 30 Sensex firms, State Bank of India tanked over 4 per cent. NTPC, ICICI Bank, HCL Technologies, Reliance Industries, Axis Bank and ITC were the other major laggards. Bajaj Finance, Asian Paints, JSW Steel and Maruti were among the gainers.

“The domestic market was in panic today due to the Sebi’s deadline over FIIs disclosure norm.However, this is not expected to impact India’s lucrativeness to FIIs in the long-term. Coupled with lack of new market catalysts and elevated valuations, a muted trend is expected to continue in the short-term. Global markets are also adopting a cautious stance ahead of the release of the US non-farm payroll data,” Vinod Nair, Head (Research), Geojit Financial Services.

In the broader market, the BSE midcap gauge dropped 1.41 per cent, while the BSE smallcap index declined 0.96 per cent.Telecommunication plunged 3.23 per cent, oil & gas (2.19 per cent), bankex (1.93 per cent), capital goods (1.70 per cent) and services (1.58 per cent).

“The sell-off was broad-based, with the banking and energy sectors taking the biggest hit. Broader indices also saw declines, losing more than a per cent each.