Sensex falls 300 points, Nifty ends below 16,500 as Delta variant worries spark sell-off in global markets

Benchmark indices closed lower for the second straight session, tracking a heavy sell-off in global markets. Sensex ended 300 points lower at 55,329 and Nifty lost 118 points to 16,450.

Tata Steel was the top  Sensex loser, plunging over 8 per cent, followed by SBI, Dr Reddy’s, Kotak Bank, Sun Pharma, Bajaj Auto and L&T.

HUL, Asian Paints, Nestle India and Bajaj Finance were among the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 5.37%. On Sensex, 22 shares ended in the red.

On Nifty, 42 shares ended lower against eight closing in the green.

HUL, Britannia, Asian Paints, Nestle India and Bajaj Finance were the top Nifty gainers, rising up to 4.86%.

Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Hindalco, UPL, and Tata Motors were the top losers on Nifty, falling up to 8.85%.

BSE mid cap and small cap indices fell 442 points and 479 points, respectively.

Among sectors, metal stocks were the top losers with the BSE metal index sinking 1,434 points to 19,339. BSE bankex and BSE healthcare indices slipped 655 points and 521 points, respectively.

All 19 sectoral indices on BSE closed in the red.

Gaurav Ratnaparkhi, Head of Technical Research, Sharekhan said, “16,350 is a key short term support to watch out for where the index can form a base for itself. The overall structure shows that this is a short term consolidation, which can take place near 16,350-16,700 over the next few sessions. The medium term outlook, however, continues to be positive.”

Market breadth was negative with 750 shares ending higher against 2,445 stocks falling on BSE. Market cap of BSE-listed firms fell to Rs 238.10 lakh crore.

Meanwhile, rupee lost 15 paise to close at 74.39 against the US currency, tracking a lacklustre trend in the domestic equities and strengthening of the American currency in the overseas market. During the session, the local unit touched an intra-day high of 74.38 and a low of 74.47 against the US currency.

Germany’s DAX fell 0.3% to 15,720.16 and the CAC 40 in France gave up 0.2% to 6,594.34. The FTSE 100 in Britain was down 0.3% at 7,040.85 in early trading.

Global markets

In Asia, the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo lost 1% to 27,013.25. Seoul’s Kospi fell 1.2% to 3,060.51 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong slipped 1.8% to 24,849.72.

The Shanghai Composite Index gave up 1.1% to 3,427.33. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.1% at 7,460.90. Benchmarks in Singapore and Indonesia rose while India’s and New Zealand’s fell.