SENSEX falls over 300 points, NIFTY50 below 24,250 dragged down by IT stocks

The Indian equity benchmarks staged a gap down opening on Tuesday, August 18, as investor sentiment was dented after crude oil prices jumped in international markets. The SENSEX fell as much as 366 points and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday low of 24,211 dragged down by losses in index heavyweights like Bharti Airtel, Infosys, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Tata Consultancy Services and Larsen & Toubro.

As of 9:26 am, the SENSEX was down 211 points at 77,517 and NIFTY50 index dropped 26 points to 24,260.

Following a spike in crude, Asian markets were trading lower. Japan's Nikkei fell 1.45%, China's Shanghai Composite index declined 0.2%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng tumbled 0.72% while South Korea's KOSPI index was trading on a flat note.

Overnight, Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.51%, S&P 500 index declined 0.52% and tech heavy Nasdaq plunged 0.32%.

Back home, nine of 15 major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange (NSE) were trading lower led by the NIFTY Realty index's 1.57% fall. NIFTY IT, PSU Bank, FMCG, Bank, Financial Services and Private Bank indices also fell between 0.2% and 1%.

On the other hand, pharma, healthcare, consumer durables and auto shares were witnessing buying interest.

Broader markets were trading on a mixed note as NIFTY Midcap 100 index declined 0.44% while NIFTY Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.1%.

Among the individual shares, Nelco fell as much as 11.52% to hit an intraday low of ₹1,092.25 after the company post market ours on Monday announced a partnership and an investment of $20 million (approximately ₹191.2 crore) in US-based Lunar Holdco, Inc., which operates as Elveo Mobile.

The investment is aimed at bringing next-generation Direct-to-Device (D2D) and Internet of Things (IoT) satellite connectivity to India and South Asian markets, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Infosys was top loser in the NIFTY50 index, the stock declined 1.73% to ₹1,120. Bharti Airtel, InterGlobe Aviation, Wipro, Asian Paints, Jio Financial Services, HCL Technologies, TCS, Ultratech Cement and Larsen & Toubro also fell between 0.8% and 1.6%.

On the flip side, ONGC, Reliance Industries, Maruti Suzuki, Grasim, Axis Bank, Bajaj Auto, Sun Pharma, Adani Enterprises and Bajaj Finance were top gainers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was neutral as 1,479 shares were declining while 1,489 were advancing on the NSE.