Sensex Drops Over 500 Points From Day's High Amid Broad-Based Selloff

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indices suffered sharp losses on Friday led by losses in HDFC, State Bank of India, ITC, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and IndusInd Bank. The benchmarks extended declines in afternoon deals deals as a selloff across sectors deepened, after trading in a choppy manner in the first half of session. The Sensex slumped as much as 515 points from the day's highest level and the Nifty 50 index hit an intraday low of 11,919.

At 2:04 pm, the Sensex traded 289 points or 0.7 per cent lower at 40,491 and the Nifty was down 0.8 per cent or 98 points at 11,921.

All the 11 sector gauges compiled by National Stock Exchange traded lower led by a 4 per cent fall in the Nifty PSU Bank index.

The Nifty Media, Nifty Auto, Nifty Bank, Nifty Private Bank, Nifty Financial Services and Nifty Realty indices were down between 1 per cent and 3.9 per cent at the time.

Mid- and small-cap shares also witnessed selling pressure as the Nifty Midcap 100 index declined 1.3 per cent and the Nifty Smallcap 100 index fell 0.9 per cent.

Yes Bank was top loser in the Nifty 50 basket of shares. The stock tumbled 9 per cent to Rs 56.50 on the BSE after ratings agency Moody's downgraded its long term foreign currency issuer rating to "BA2" and assigned negative outlook.

Zee Entertainment, GAIL India, State Bank of India, Tata Motors, Eicher Motors, HDFC and IndusInd bank were down between 2.7 per cent and 4 per cent.

On the flipside, Bharti Infratel, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Asian Paints and HCL Technologies were among the notable losers in the Nifty 50 basket of shares.

Overall market breadth was extremely bearish, with 1,634 shares declining and 738 advancing on the BSE.