SENSEX drops over 500 points, NIFTY50 below 25,600 dragged by Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank

The Indian equity benchmarks fell sharply lower on Monday, January 12, dragged down by losses in index heavyweights like Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank as their December quarter earnings failed to enthuse investors. The SENSEX fell as much as 541 points and NIFTY50 index dropped to an intraday low of 25,528.

As of 9:32 am, SENSEX traded 452 points lower at 83,129 and NIFTY50 index declined 151 points to 25,543.

Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank were the biggest contributors towards loss in the SENSEX they collectively wiped out 465 points from the 30-shares SENSEX, data from BSE showed.

Reliance Industries shares fell as much as 2.7% to hit an intraday low of ₹1,418.60 after it reported a net profit of ₹18,645 crore in the third quarter of the current financial year (Q3FY26), marking a marginal increase of 0.57% from ₹18,540 crore in the same period last year.

Reliance Industries' revenue from operations advanced 10.5% to ₹2,69,496 crore in the October-December period compared with ₹2,43,865 crore in the year-ago period.

ICICI Bank shares declined as much as 3.3% to hit an intraday low of ₹1,364 after net profit declined 4% to ₹11,317.86 crore against ₹11,792.42 crore in the year ago period.

Wipro shares dropped nearly 10% to ₹241.55 after it reported net profit of ₹3,119 crore in the third quarter of current financial year, marking a decline of 7% annually from ₹3,354 crore in the same period last year.

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

Sectoral landscape

Selling pressure was broad-based as all the 15 major sector gauges, barring the measures of PSU banking and FMCG shares, were trading lower led by NIFTY IT index's 1.15% loss. NIFTY Oil & Gas, Bank, Pharma, Realty, Private Bank and Auto indices also declined between 035%-1%.

Broader markets were also facing selling pressure as NIFTY Midcap 100 index declined 0.41% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index fell 0.53%.