Sensex, Nifty tank nearly 1% on selloff in banking, IT stocks

Equity benchmark indices SENSEX and NIFTY buckled under selling pressure to settle nearly 1% lower on Friday as investors pared exposure to bank and IT stocks ahead of the earnings season starting next week.

A depreciating rupee against the US dollar further weighed on sentiment, traders said.

The 30-share BSE SENSEX tumbled 720.60 points or 0.90% to close at 79,223.11 despite a positive beginning. During the day, it slumped 833.98 points or 1.04% to 79,109.73.

The NIFTY50 tanked 183.90 points or 0.76% to 24,004.75.

On a weekly basis, the BSE benchmark jumped 524.04 points or 0.66%, and the Nifty climbed 191.35 points or 0.80%.

From the SENSEX pack, Zomato, HDFC Bank, Tech Mahindra, Adani Ports, Tata Consultancy Services, ICICI Bank, Sun Pharma, Larsen & Toubro, HCL Tech and ITC were the major laggards.

On the other hand, Tata Motors, Nestle, Titan, Hindustan Unilever and Reliance Industries were among the gainers.

The BSE midcap gauge fell 0.33%, and smallcap index dipped 0.02%.

Among sectoral indices, BSE Focused IT declined 1.42 per cent, IT (1.31%), teck (1.13%), bankex (1.07%), capital goods (1.06%) and financial services (0.87%).

BSE energy, telecommunication, consumer durables, utilities, metal and oil & gas were the gainers.

In Asian markets, Seoul and Hong Kong settled in the positive territory while Shanghai ended lower. Japanese markets were closed for the New Year holiday.

Markets in Europe were trading lower. US stocks were in the negative territory on Thursday.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) turned buyers on Thursday after remaining net sellers for the past many days. They bought equities worth ₹1,506.75 crore, according to exchange data.

The rupee dropped 3 paise to close at a record low of 85.78 (provisional) against the US dollar on Friday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.43% to $75.60 a barrel.

In the previous session, the BSE benchmark jumped 1,436.30 points or 1.83% -- its best single-day gain in more than a month -- to settle at 79,943.71. The NIFTY surged 445.75 points or 1.88% to 24,188.65.