SENSEX drops 324 points, NIFTY50 ends below 25,600 dragged by Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank

The Indian equity benchmarks ended sharply lower on Monday, January 19, and resumed their downward journey after day's pause in the previous session dragged down by weakness in index heavyweights Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank as their December quarter earnings failed to enthuse investors. The SENSEX fell as much as 672 points and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday low of 25,494.

The benchmarks, however, staged a partial recovery in the second half of the session on the back of buying interest in Kotak Mahindra Bank, Hindustan Unilever and Bajaj Finance. The SENSEX ended 324 points lower at 83,246 and NIFTY50 index declined 109 points to settle at 25,585.

Weak global cues also added to the selling pressure after United States President Donald Trump threatened to impose 10% additional tariff on eight European nations for opposing American control of Greenland. European markets were trading lower with France's CAC40 index declining 1.35%, United Kingdom's FTSE100 index falling 0.5% and Germany's DAX plunging 1.2%.

Back home, Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank were top drags on the SENSEX they alone wiped out nearly 450 points from the 30-share BSE benchmark index, data from the BSE showed.

Sectoral landscape

Selling pressure was broad-based as twelve of 15 major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended lower led by the NIFTY Realty index's 2% fall. NIFTY Media, Oil & Gas, Consumer Durables, Healthcare and IT indices also fell between 0.4%-1.5%.

On the flipside, FMCG and auto stocks witnessed buying interest.

Broader markets also faced selling pressure as NIFTY Midcap 100 index fell 0.37% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index plunged 1%.

Among the individual shares, Punjab National Bank fell 3.25% after its provisions for bad loans in the third quarter of current financial surged sharply to ₹1,341 crore compared with ₹318 crore in the same period last year.

Hindustan Zinc closed 3.53% higher at ₹660 after its net profit jumped 46% YoY to ₹3,916 crore as compared to ₹2,678 crore in the same period last year. The company recorded the impact of the new labour codes implementation since November 2025, worth ₹31 crore.

NIFTY50 gainers and losers

Wipro was top loser in the NIFTY50 index, the stock fell 8.21% to close at ₹245 after Q3FY26 earnings and guidance soured investor sentiment.

Wipro reported weak bottom-line growth on account of higher provisioning for labor costs due to the new labor code. The company’s net profit fell 7% YoY to ₹3119 crore. The company’s revenue for the quarter advanced 5.5% annually to ₹23,556 crore in the October-December period from ₹22,319 crore in the year-ago period.

Reliance Industries declined 3.07% to close at ₹1,413 after it reported marginal 0.57% increase in its net profit to ₹18,645 crore in the third quarter of the current financial year (Q3FY26) from ₹18,540 crore in the same period last year.

Eternal, Tata Motors PV, Max Healthcare, ICICI Bank, ONGC, Apollo Hospitals and TCS also dropped between 1.43%-2.87%.

On the flipside, IndiGo, Tech Mahindra, Hindustan Unilever, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Maruti Suzuki and Bajaj Finance were top gainers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was extremely negative as 3,075 shares ended lower while 1,226 ended higher on the BSE.