SENSEX drops over 600 points, NIFTY50 below 23,700 dragged down by HDFC Bank, Infosys

The Indian equity benchmarks staged a gap down opening on Tuesday, March 12, as crude oil prices moved above $105 per barrel as the war with Iran threatens to drag on for longer. The SENSEX fell as much as 625 points and NIFTY50 index briefly dropped below its important psychological level of 23,700 dragged down by losses in index heavyweights like HDFC Bank, Infosys, ICICI Bank, Tata Consultancy Services, Reliance Industries and Bajaj Finance.

As of 9:29 am, the SENSEX was down 663 points at 75,352 and NIFTY50 index declined 160 points to 23,656.

Back home, selling pressure was visible across board as 13 of 15 major sector gauges were trading lower led by the NIFTY IT index's 3% fall. NIFTY Bank, Financial Services, Media, Pharma, Realty, and Consumer Durable indices also fell between 0.5% and 1.4%.

Broader markets were also facing selling pressure as NIFTY Midcap 100 index declined 0.92% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index dropped 1.4%.

Among the individual shares, shares of upstream oil companies such as ONGC and Oil India Ltd were trading in positive territory on Tuesday, May 12, after the government reduced royalty rates on crude oil and natural gas production from multiple categories of fields, including deepwater and ultra-deepwater blocks, to boost domestic exploration and output.

Tata Consultancy Services was top loser in the NIFTY50 index, the stock declined 3.34% to ₹2,313. Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Adani Ports, HCL Technologies, SBI Life, HDFC Life, Maruti Suzuki and Jio Financial Services also fell between 1.6% and 3.2%.

On the flipside, ONGC, Hindalco, Coal India, Tata Steel, NTPC, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Airtel, State Bank of India and Nestle India were notable gainers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was extremely negative as 2,099 shares were declining while 747 were advancing on the NSE.