Sensex Tumbles Over 400 Points, Nifty Settles Below 14,500

The benchmark indices tumbled nearly one per cent in the late-afternoon session to end near the lows of the day, amid heightened volatility. The BSE Sensex swung in a range of more than 800 points before ending the session at 48,253.51, weaker by 465.01 points or 0.95 per cent and the NSE Nifty ended at 14,496.50, down 137.65 points or 0.94 per cent. The BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap indices, however, ended with modest losses of around 0.3 per cent each.

All the BSE sectoral indices ended in the red, with the exception of the PSU banking index. 

Meanwhile, the rupee ended higher by 7 paise at 73.86 per dollar. It had opened marginally higher at 73.90 per dollar against previous close of 73.93 and traded in a range of 73.76-73.97 throughout the day.

Among individual shares, Tata Consumer Products dived nearly 5 per cent to top the loser's list among the BSE stocks. Pharma stocks also had a weak session, with Cipla, Dr Reddy's, Divi's Lab and Sun Pharma losing 1-3 per cent each. Index heavyweights such as Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank and HDFC Bank also weakened by around 2 per cent each.

Among stocks in the news, Tata Chemicals shares plunged more than 9 per cent to Rs 708 after the chemicals giant reported a huge decline in profit in the quarter ended March 2021.

On the other, SBI Life Insurance gained more than 2 per cent to top the gainers list on the BSE. Shares of state-run oil retailers also jumped after the country's largest state-run oil retailer Indian Oil hiked the prices of petrol and diesel after a pause of 18 days. Bharat Petroleum and ONGC gained more than a per cent each on the BSE.

The BSE market breadth was weak. Out of 3,141 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 1,402 advancing stock as against 1,563 declines.