Sensex, Nifty see free fall amid soaring inflation, foreign fund withdraw

Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty tumbled more than 1% on Wednesday amid retail inflation soaring to a 14-month high of 6.21% in October and unabated foreign fund outflows.

Muted quarterly earnings, selling in frontline stocks -- HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries -- along with weak trends in the US and Asian peers also hit markets' sentiment, traders said.

The BSE benchmark Sensex tanked 984.23 points or 1.25% to settle at 77,690.95, extending its previous day's fall. During the day, it slumped 1,141.88 points or 1.45% to 77,533.30.

Registering its fifth day of decline, the NSE Nifty tumbled 324.40 points or 1.36% to 23,559.05.

From the 30-share Sensex pack, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Steel, Adani Ports, JSW Steel, IndusInd Bank, Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the biggest laggards.

Tata Motors, NTPC, Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints and Infosys were the gainers.

The latest data showed retail inflation breached the Reserve Bank's upper tolerance level, soaring to a 14-month high of 6.21% in October, mainly on account of rising food prices.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth ₹3,024.31 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong settled lower while Shanghai ended in the positive territory.

European markets were trading higher.

The US markets ended in the negative territory on Tuesday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.93% to $72.56 a barrel.

The BSE benchmark tumbled 820.97 points or 1.03% to settle at 78,675.18 on Tuesday. The Nifty tanked 257.85 points or 1.07 per cent to 23,883.45.