Heavy selling leads to market crash

PTI

Mumbai, April 18

The Sensex tumbled 1,172 points while the Nifty crashed below the 17,200-level on Monday, hammered by robust selling in market heavyweights Infosys and HDFC Bank following their below-estimate results. A weakening rupee and lacklustre macroeconomic data added to the woes, traders said.

Resuming trade after a two-day holiday last week, the BSE Sensex tumbled 1,172.19 points to settle at 57,166.74 — marking its fourth straight session of loss. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty plunged 302 points or 1.73% to 17,173.65.

SENSEX SINKS

1,172.19 POINTS

RUPEE DECLINES TO 76.29/$

CLOSES AT 57,166.74

• NSE Nifty dived 302 points to settle at 17,173.65 points
• Infosys was the top loser, followed by HDFC twins, Tech Mahindra, Wipro and TCS

Infosys was the top loser in the Sensex pack, plummeting 7.27%, after the country's second-largest software services company posted a 12% rise in its March quarter net profit, missing market estimates.

HDFC Bank lost 4.74% after the largest private sector lender on Saturday reported a 23% jump in Q4 standalone net profit, led by lower provisions, even as other metrics like net interest income came in below expectations.

HDFC, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, TCS and HCL Tech were the other major laggards. In contrast, NTPC, Tata Steel, Maruti, Titan, HUL, M&M and Nestle India were among the gainers, spurting as much as 6.11%.

"After a long weekend, we witnessed huge fall of 2% in the benchmark index. The fall was mainly on account of below estimate results of Infosys and HDFC Bank and the rising tension between Russia and Ukraine.

"We expect further fall in markets in coming days considering the recent rise of Covid cases in India and rising inflation concerns across the globe," said Rahul Sharma, Research Head, Equity 99.

"Unfavourable start to earnings season in heavyweight stocks of IT and banking sector led to heavy sell-off. Lower-than-expected results prompted the market to worry about the headwinds faced by IT sector like attrition, wage inflation, lower utilisation, and cut in IT spending by industries due to geopolitical and macro issues. "The degree of downfall is high because the sector was trading at high valuation and risk of a downgrade in outlook has increased," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services. —