Sensex sinks 746 pts as profit-booking deepens

Mumbai, January 22

Widespread profit-booking hammered stocks for the second straight session on Friday, with the Sensex tanking 746 points and the Nifty crashing below the 14,400-mark.

A day after touching the historic 50,000-level, the Sensex found it tough to sustain itself at higher levels as investors offloaded Reliance Industries ahead of its results, while banking and finance counters also bore the brunt of heavy selling amid lacklustre global cues.

The 30-share BSE benchmark tumbled 746.22 points to finish at 48,878.54, posting its largest single-session drop in a month. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty slumped 218.45 points to 14,371.90.

Axis Bank was the biggest laggard among the Sensex constituents, skidding 4.63%, followed by Asian Paints, SBI, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, HDFC and Reliance Industries.

On the other hand, Bajaj Auto stole the show by surging 10.45%, a day after it reported a robust 23% jump in profit after tax at Rs 1,556 crore in December quarter. — PTI