SENSEX falls over 250 points, NIFTY50 below 24,400 dragged by financial services shares

The Indian equity benchmarks moved lower on Wednesday, August 12, as investor sentiment remained cautious tracking a surge in crude prices.

The SENSEX fell as much as 273 points and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday low of 24,390 dragged down by losses in index heavyweights like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank, Larsen & Toubro, Mahindra & Mahindra, Reliance Industries and Kotak Mahindra Bank.

As of 9:24 am, the SENSEX was down 159 points at 77,995 and NIFTY50 index fell 31 points to 24,440.

Brent crude futures were hovering around $90 per barrel on growing concerns over reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

US President Donald Trump said the situation with Iran is “going fine”, telling reporters at Joint Base Andrews that US forces are in “total control” of the Strait of Hormuz, Al Jazeera reported.

US forces disabled a Panama-flagged cargo ship attempting to sail towards an Iranian port by firing two Hellfire missiles at its steering gear after it ignored warnings, the report added.

Most of the Asian markets were trading higher on Wednesday. Japan's Nikkei rose 0.4%, China's Shanghai Composite index gained 0.25%, South Korea's KOSPI surged 4% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng surged 4%.

Back home, 10 of 15 major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange (NSE) were trading lower led by the NIFTY Healthcare index's 0.7% fall. NIFTY Pharma, FMCG, IT, Realty, Private Bank, Consumer Durables, Oil & Gas and Financial Services indices also declined between 0.1% and 0.6%.

On the other hand, metal, auto and PSU banking shares were witnessing buying interest.

Broader markets were trading on a subdued note as NIFTY Midcap 100 index declined 0.15% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index slipped 0.04%.

Among the individual shares, Bata India surged as much as 8.42% to hit an intraday high of ₹758.45 after it reported a 23% on-year increase in consolidated net profit at ₹63.98 crore in the June quarter, helped by operational efficiency, disciplined cost management and sharper execution across channels.

It had posted a net profit of ₹52 crore in the previous April-June quarter a year ago, Bata India said in a regulatory filing.

Piccadily Agro shares dropped as much as 16% to hit an intraday low of ₹654.90 after it reported a 15.35% rise in net profit to ₹21.30 crore for the June quarter of FY27, driven by its premium Alcobev portfolio.

The company had posted a net profit of ₹18.46 crore in the April-June period of the preceding financial year, according to a regulatory filing.

The maker of the largest-selling single malt whisky Indri and Camikara Rum reported an 18.12% increase in total revenue from operations to ₹270.50 crore in Q1 FY27.

Max Healthcare was top loser in the NIFTY50 index, the stock fell 1.84% to ₹1,021 after a parliamentary panel recommended that basic room rate at private hospitals in large metro cities should not exceed the average tariff of nearby three-star hotels.

Apollo Hospitals, Jio Financial Services, Bajaj Finserv, Mahindra & Mahindra, Dr Reddy's Labs, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bajaj Finance, Bharat Electronics and Larsen & Toubro also fell between 0.8% and 1.65%.

On the flip side, Hindalco, State Bank of India, Grasim, Tech Mahindra, Nestle India, Bajaj Auto, Trent and Axis Bank were top gainers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was marginally negative as 1,562 shares were declining while 1,332 were advancing on the NSE.