Sensex Tanks Over 600 Points, Nifty Trades Below 17,600; IT, Financial Stocks Top Drags

New Delhi: The Indian equity benchmarks on Thursday plunged sharply in late deals, pausing a three-day winning run amid weak global cues. As of 1:55 pm, the benchmark BSE Sensex tanked 632 points or 1.06 per cent to 58,926, while the broader NSE Nifty moved 185 points or 1.04 per cent lower to 17,595.

Asian shares were mostly weak as Japan's Nikkei index plunged 1.11 per cent and the Shanghai Composite index fell 0.97 per cent. U.S. stock futures were lower after Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc's shares plunged more than 20 per cent in overnight post-market trade after missing earnings estimates.

Back home, Mid- and small-cap shares were in the negative zone as Nifty Midcap 100 index was down 0.56 per cent and small-cap shares were trading 0.09 per cent lower.

Traders were also concerned after a poll by IHS Markit revealed that India's services sector growth fell to a six-month low in January, owing to constraints imposed by the Omicron wave of Covid-19 infections and rising pricing, said Gaurav Garg, Head of Research, Capitalvia Global Research Ltd.

On the stock-specific front, HDFC was the top Nifty laggard as the stock cracked 3.29 per cent to Rs 2,527.05. SBI Life, Infosys, ONGC and Larsen and Toubro (L&T) were also among the laggards. Sub-indices Nifty IT and Nifty Financial Services were seen underperforming the NSE index.

In contrast, Hero MotorCorp, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki India, Divi's Lab and Indian Oil Corp were among the gainers.

On BSE, the overall market breadth was slightly positive as 1,764 shares were advancing while 1,531 were declining.

On the 30-share BSE platform, HDFC, Infosys, L&T, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tech Mahindra, Hindustan Unilever, Bajaj Finance, Nestle India, and Reliance Industries attracted the most losses with their shares sliding as much as 3.16 per cent.

Also, shares of Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services (Mahindra Finance) fell as much as 5.30 per cent to Rs 160 after posting weak third-quarter numbers on a sequential basis. Mahindra Finance has a profit of Rs 992 crore for the December 2021 quarter against Rs 1,103 crore posted in the September 2021 quarter.

The indexes had climbed about 4 per cent each over the last three sessions with the Union Budget 2022-23 in focus.

"The market had been supported by the growth-orient budget, but we now have to really see what is happening globally. Until the dust settles around interest rates, volatility will stay," Aishvarya Dadheech, a fund manager at Ambit Asset Management in Mumbai, told news agency Reuters.