Sensex tanks 750 pts, Nifty below 16,300; Banks drag

In tandem with weak global market sentiment, the domestic benchmark indices started trade sharply lower on Friday. The BSE Sensex fell 763 points to 54,339, while the NSE Nifty was at 16,289, lower by 208 points.

Among the Sensex-30 shares, Asian Paints, Maruti, Axis Bank, Titan, Wipro, Bajaj twins, Kotak Bank, HUL, M&M, Tech M, Infosys, HDFC Bank were the top losers, up to 4 per cent lower. On the Nifty, auto players-Hero MotoCorp, Eicher Motors, Tata Motors were the additional laggards.

Meanwhile, a few shares were trading higher on the bourses especially from the Metal pack. These included Tata Steel, Hindalco, JSW Steel, along with NTPC, UPL and BPCL.

Sectorally, barring Nifty Metal index, all others were holding steep losses with Nifty Bank, Financials, Auto, IT, Realty, Pharma, FMCG trading 1-2 per cent lower.

In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices were also in the negative territory, down up to 1 per cent.

Among stocks, LT Foods was firmly higher by 4 per cent on the BSE. The company’s Subsidiary LT Foods Americas Inc has acquired 51 per cent stake in Golden Star Trading Inc.