Sensex dips 300 pts, Nifty at 20,850; Paytm cracks 20%

After a week of sharp gains, equity benchmark indices saw a negative start to Thursday’s trade, tracking losses across global markets ahead of Friday’s jobs data in the US. The BSE Sensex fell 200 points to 69,444 and the NSE Nifty50 slipped 56 points to 20,881.

HUL, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finance, ICICI Bank, Neslte and Sun Pharma led losses on the Sensex, while Apollo Hospitals, ONGC and Britannia were the top Nifty losers.

On the flip side, Ultratech Cement, MAruti, NTPC, Adani Ports, BPCL and Adani Ent were among the frontline gainers.

The BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices also fell by 0.2 per cent each.

Among stocks, Paytm cracked 20 per cent on its plan to reduce below Rs 50,000-loan disbursements after RBI’s tightening of consumer credit norms.

Nifty Pharma, Realty indices were the only sectoral pockets to hold small gains of 0.12-0.23 per cent, while others sat in red.