Sensex, Nifty Erase Early Gains; IndusInd Bank Shares Drop Over 10%

The Indian equity benchmarks erased early gains on Monday as losses in heavyweights like IndusInd Bank, Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Asian Paints offset gains in HDFC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bharti Airtel and Larsen & Toubro. The Sensex fell as much as 525 points from the day's highest level and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday low of 17,837.70.

As of 9:36 am, the Sensex was down 135 points at 59,912 and Nifty 50 index fell 32 points to 17,885.

Meanwhile, Asian share markets were mixed on Monday as risk assets found support from the upbeat U.S. October payrolls report, but faced another test later in the week from a reading on U.S. inflation that could spook the rate horses.

The congressional passage of a long-delayed U.S. $1 trillion infrastructure bill cheered investors, though a broader social safety net plan remains elusive.

Moves were modest with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan off 0.2 per cent. Japan's Nikkei lost early gains to dip 0.2 per cent, short of a recent five-week peak.

Back home, eight of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the Nifty Pharma index's nearly 2 per cent decline. Nifty Private Bank, Healthcare, Metal, FMCG and Bank indices also fell between 0.7-1.2 per cent.

On the other hand, Nifty Auto, Media, PSU Bank and Realty indices were trading with a positive bias.

Mid- and small-cap shares were trading flat as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.2 per cent while Nifty Smallcap 100 index was up 0.02 per cent.

IndusInd Bank was top Nifty gainer, the stock fell 11 per cent to Rs 1,062 after the bank denied allegations regarding ever greening of loans at IndusInd Bank's arm.

Divi's Labs, dropped 8 per cent to Rs 4,778 after its net profit rose 16 per cent to Rs 606 crore in September quarter. Hindalco, Sun Pharma, JSW Steel, Mahindra & Mahindra, HCL Technologies, Reliance Industries, Tata Steel, Cipla, Asian Paints and Axis Bank were also among the losers.

On the flipside, Eicher Motors, Bharti Airtel, Grasim Industries, Titan, Tata Motors, UltraTech Cement, Bharat Petroleum and Kotak Mahindra Bank were among the gainers.

The overall market breadth was neutral as 1,433 shares were advancing while 1,436 were declining on the BSE.