India's stock benchmarks reverted to decline mode after snapping the joint longest losing streak on Friday, dragged by broad-based losses across sectors led by commodities, FMCG, utilities, auto, banking and power, while healthcare stocks bucked the trend.
It came amid a slide in global equities as markets are spooked by global central banks' commitment to hike rates to bring down inflation, and ahead of the OPEC+ meeting in which the oil producers' bloc is expected to rein in supply to arrest the slide in oil prices.
The Sensex fell 1.11% (638 points) to close at 56,788.81. The 30-stock gauge lost nearly 750 points to reach an intraday low of 56,683.40. The Nifty 50 also declined by a similar magnitude to close at 16,878.10.
Today, 41 of the Nifty 50 stocks fell while nine rose.
Adani Enterprises, Ltd. Eicher Motors Ltd., Adani Ports & SEZ Ltd., Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. and Tata Consumer Products Ltd. declined the most among the Nifty 50 stocks.
ONGC Ltd., Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd., Cipla Ltd., Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd., Coal India Ltd., Divi's Laboratories Ltd., NTPC Ltd., Bharti Airtel Ltd. and Wipro Ltd. were gainers in the 50-stock gauge.
The Midcap index almost mirrored its larger peers while the Smallcap measure outperformed.
Barring healthcare and telecommunications, all the other 17 sectoral gauges compiled by BSE Ltd. declined, with power and utilities index losing over 3%.
The market breadth is skewed in favour of bears. About 1,452 stocks rose, 2,097 fell, and 155 remained unchanged.
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