Equities fall sharply in early trade; Sensex tanks over 900 points

Among stocks, Maruti Suzuki, Asian Paints, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Auto, and HDFC Bank were the top five losers in the opening session, declining 3.8 percent, 3.8 percent, 3.7 percent, 3.6 percent, and 3.3 percent, respectively

PGurus Newsdesk

March 2, 2022

Among stocks, Maruti Suzuki, Asian Paints, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Auto, and HDFC Bank were the top five losers in the opening session, declining 3.8 percent, 3.8 percent, 3.7 percent, 3.6 percent, and 3.3 percent, respectively

Sensex down 900 points, Nifty below 16,600; financial shares drag

As the investors continue to worry about the ongoing geostrategic war, India’s key indices — S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50 — have declined sharply in early trade on Wednesday.

At 10.04 a.m., Sensex was 1.6 percent or 921 points down at 55,326 points, whereas Nifty was 1.4 percent or 232 points down at 16,562 points.

The key benchmark indices continued to languish at the lows of the day on the back of persistent selling pressure in financial shares, mainly private institutions. The BSE Sensex was down around 900 points at 55,300-odd levels, while the NSE Nifty50 index languished below 16,600, lower by more than 200 points.

Sectorally, the BSE Bankex slumped 3 percent. The Auto, Telecom, and Realty indices were the other major losers. On the positive front, the Metal index soared 4.4 percent. The Oil & Gas and Power indices were up a percent each. Out of 3,321 stocks traded on the BSE so far, 1,677 advanced and 1,494 declined.

Lower than expected GDP growth during Q3FY22 also weighed on the investor’s sentiment.

“Q3 GDP growth at 5.4 percent came lower than expected. This slowdown is likely to be extended, going forward. As things stand now, India’s GDP growth for FY 23 will be lower and inflation higher than estimates. This is negative for the stock market,” said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Hindalco, Coal India, Tata Steel, ONGC, and JSW Steel were the top five gainers, NSE data showed.

[With Inputs from IANS]

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