SENSEX falls over 250 points, NIFTY50 below 23,850 dragged by IT stocks

The Indian equity benchmarks edged lower on Monday, September 7, as investor sentiment turned cautious after crude oil prices moved higher as geopolitical tensions in West Asia escalated.

The SENSEX fell as much as 264 points and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday low of 23,818 dragged down by weakness in index heavyweights like Infosys, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank, HCL Technologies, Axis Bank, Tech Mahindra, Tata Steel and Mahindra & Mahindra.

As of 9:46 am, the SENSEX was down 184 points at 76,331 and NIFTY50 index declined 61 points to 23,837.

The 10-day moving average was 10 on Sunday, down from more than 15 on Friday and nearly 13 on Saturday. Only two vessels passed through the strait on Saturday, while six went through on Sunday, mostly using the Iranian route, the report added.

Iran's state media confirmed the strikes and said Tehran had attacked three US-affiliated vessels in response, as well as three oil tankers travelling through the Strait of Hormuz along an "unauthorised" route.

Back home, selling pressure was broad based as all the major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange (NSE) were trading lower led by the NIFTY IT index's nearly 2% fall.

IT shares came under selling pressure after better than anticipated August payrolls data in the United States increased expectations of a rate hike by the US Federal Reserve which could lead to a cut down in discretionary spending by the American corporations, the biggest market for the Indian IT companies.

NIFTY Bank, Financial Services, Auto, FMCG, Metal, PSU Bank, Realty and Oil & Gas indices also fell between 0.2% and 0.8%.

Broader markets were also facing selling pressure as NIFTY Midcap 100 index declined 0.3% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index fell 0.1%.

Infosys was top loser in the NIFTY50 index, the stock fell 2.57% to ₹1,101. Tech Mahindra, Wipro, HCL Technologies, Bajaj Auto, Tata Steel, Ultratech Cement, HDFC Life, SBI Life, Tata Consultancy Services and Jio Financial Services also fell between 0.9% and 2.03%.

On the flip side, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, Coal India, Bharat Electronics, Eicher Motors, Apollo Hospitals, Larsen & Toubro and Adani Enterprises were top gainers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was neutral as 1,580 shares were advancing while 1,520 were declining on the NSE.