SENSEX, NIFTY50 snap two-day winning streak dragged by Reliance, Kotak Bank

The Indian equity benchmarks snapped their two-day winning streak on Monday, June 29, as sentiment turned cautious after geopolitical tensions between United States and Iran resurfaced sending crude oil prices higher and US dollar to near a one-year high.

The SENSEX dropped as much as 479 points and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday low of 23,925 dragged down by losses in index heavyweights like Reliance Industries, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, Larsen & Toubro, Maruti Suzuki and State Bank of India.

The SENSEX ended 372 points lower at 76,728 and NIFTY50 index declined 110 points to close at 23,946.

Back home, selling pressure was broad-based as 12 of 15 major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange (NSE) ended lower led by the NIFTY Auto index's 2% fall. NIFTY Oil & Gas, IT, Bank, Financial Services, Realty, PSU Bank, FMCG and Private Bank indices also fell between 0.6% and 1.2%.

On the flip side, metal, pharma and healthcare shares witnessed buying interest.

Broader markets also faced selling pressure as NIFTY Midcap 100 index declined 0.37% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index dropped 0.62%.

Among the individual shares, Hexaware Technologies jumped as much as 9% after the company informed exchanges that it was named an Anthropic Authorized Reseller for Amazon Bedrock, joining a select group of companies worldwide authorized to resell Claude.

Bharat Petroleum Corporation shares fell 3$ after the company said it will acquire a 40% equity stake in Tiki Tar and Shell India for ₹85 crore in cash, as it seeks to expand its presence in India's fast-growing value-added bitumen market.

Kotak Mahindra Bank was top loser in the NIFTY50 index, the stock fell nearly 3% to close at ₹397 after the bank said that its MD and CEO Ashok Vaswani will quit upon completion of his three-year tenure and will not seek re-appointment when his current term ends on December 31, 2026.

Mahindra & Mahindra, Adani Enterprises, Tata Motors PV, IndiGo, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Auto, Tata Consumer Products and Hindustan Unilever also declined between 1.3% and 2.4%.

On the other hand, Max Healthcare, Dr Reddy's Labs, Coal India, Eternal, Bharat Electronics, Trent, SBI Life, Power Grid and Hindalco were top gainers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was negative as 2,036 shares ended lower while 1,330 closed higher on the NSE.