SENSEX falls over 400 points, NIFTY50 below 24,250 as crude moves above $100 per barrel

The Indian equity benchmarks staged a gap down opening on Friday, May 8, mirroring weak trend in global markets after crude oil prices moved above $100 per barrel. The S&P BSE SENSEX fell as much as 553 points and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday low of 24,158 dragged down by losses in index heavyweights like HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra and Larsen & Toubro.

As of 9:26 am, the SENSEX traded 315 points lower at 77,529 and NIFTY50 index declined 94 points to 24,234.

Japan's Nikkei fell 1.6%, China's Shanghai Composite declined 0.4% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.33%.

Overnight, US stocks ended lower on Thursday as market participants watched volatile crude oil prices. Dow Jones fell 0.6%, tech heavy Nasdaq declined 0.13% and S&P 500 fell 0.4%.

Back home, selling pressure was visible across board 13 of 15 major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange (NSE) were trading lower led by the NIFTY Oil & Gas index's 1% fall. NIFTY Bank, Private Bank, Consumer Durables, PSU Bank, Financial Services and Realty indices also declined between 0.4% and 0.85%.

On the flip side, IT and healthcare shares were witnessing a mild buying interest.

Broader markets trading on a mixed note as NIFTY Midcap 100 index fell 0.11% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.23%.

Coal India was top loser in the NIFTY50 index, the stock fell 1.94% to ₹457.60. Eternal, Axis Bank, Tata Motors PV, UltraTech Cement, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finance, JSW Steel and Shriram Finance also fell between 1.3% and 1.6%.

On the contrary, Apollo Hospitals, Adani Ports, Tata Consumer Products, Tech Mahindra, Asian Paints and Infosys were among top gainers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was negative as 1,510 shares were declining while 1,328 were advancing on the NSE.