SENSEX drops over 500 points, NIFTY50 below 25,550; mid, small-cap shares underperform

The Indian equity benchmarks were trading sharply lower on Monday, January 12, with SENSEX dropping as much as 533 points and NIFTY50 index touching an intraday low of 25,529 as foreign fund outflows and uncertainty over trade deal with United States continue to haunt investor sentiment.

The foreign institutional investors sold shares worth ₹3,769 crore on Friday while domestic institutional investors bought shares worth ₹5,596 crore, data from the National Stock Exchange showed.

The FIIs have so far this month sold shares worth ₹11,789 crore, according to the data from National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL).

As of 9:35 am, the SENSEX traded 390 points lower at 83,190 and NIFTY50 index declined 115 points to 25,668.

Meanwhile, Asian markets were trading higher on Monday with Hong Kong's Hang Seng up 0.4%, China's Shanghai Composite advanced 0.32%, South Korea's KOSPI gained 1.2% and Australia's S&P ASX 200 index rose 0.42%.

Back home, broader markets were underperforming their larger peers as NIFTY Midcap 100 index declined 1.05% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index plunged 1.55%.

Selling pressure was broad-based as all the major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange, barring the measure of FMCG shares, were trading lower led by NIFTY Media index's 1.7% fall. NIFTY Pharma, Healthcare, IT, PSU Bank, Auto, Realty, Consumer Durables and Bank indices also fell between 0.3%-1.2%.

The mood among market participants was highly fearful as the India VIX or volatility index also known as the fear index jumped nearly 9% to 11.87.

Among the individual shares, BHEL fell as much as 5.68% to hit the day's low of ₹258.65 on the NSE. Shares of the company, along with other capital goods players, tumbled last week (especially Thursday, January 8) amid news reports that the finance ministry was planning to scrap a five-year-old restriction on Chinese firms bidding for government contracts, which triggered fear of increased competition.

Max Healthcare was top loser in the NIFTY50 index, the stock fell 2.11% to ₹996. Apollo Hospitals, Jio Financial Services, Adani Ports, Bharat Electronics, Larsen & Toubro and Cipla also fell between 1.21%-1.83%.

On the flipside, HDFC Life, Hindustan Unilever, SBI Life, Trent, Tata Consumer Products, Asian Paints and Wipro were among the notable gainers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was extremely negative as 2,564 shares were declining while 965 were advancing on the BSE.