Sensex tanks over 700 points, Nifty below 11,000-mark in afternoon trade; Vedanta, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel among top losers

Equity benchmark BSE Sensex tanked over 700 points to below 37,000-level during the afternoon trade on Thursday while NSE Nifty plunged too to below 11,000-mark.

The 30-share index was trading 710.86 points or 1.90 percent lower at 36,770.26 in the late afternoon trading while the Nifty plunged 175.45 points or 1.87 percent to 10,909.95.

In the Sensex pack, Vedanta took the biggest hit, trading 5.68 percent followed by Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel, Infosys and Yes Bank.

However, Maruti, Power Grid, Bajaj Auto and NTPC were trading in the green.

In the morning, the Sensex fell over 200 points on concerns over weak core industrial growth data and sustained foreign fund outflows.

The 30-share index was trading 205.69 points or 0.55 percent lower at 37,275.43; and the broader Nifty fell 16.15 points or 0.44 percent to 11,069.25.

In the previous session, Sensex gained 83.88 points or 0.22 percent to end at 37,481.12. The broader NSE Nifty ended 32.60 points or 0.29 percent up at 11,118.00.

The markets continue to witness persistent outflow of foreign funds from equities.

Foreign investors sold shares worth Rs 1,497.07 crore on a net basis on Wednesday, as per provisional data with stock exchanges.

Growth of eight core industries dropped to 0.2 percent in June, mainly due to contraction in oil-related sectors as well as cement production, according to official data.

#CNBCTV18Market | #Nifty trades at 5-month low, #Sensex down 700 points, down nearly 3% this week. Nifty Bank down more than 1,200 points this week, today’s Fall its 2nd biggest in 2019 pic.twitter.com/H2Q9XdVGd1

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) August 1, 2019

The government on Wednesday also revised downwards the growth rate of these eight sectors for May to 4.3 percent from the earlier estimate of 5.1 percent.

Overall investor sentiment was weak after the government on Wednesday released the core industries output growth numbers, which dropped to 0.2 percent in June, experts said.

Meanwhile, the government’s fiscal deficit touched Rs 4.32 lakh crore for the June quarter, which is 61.4 percent of the budget estimate for 2019-20 fiscal.

The US Federal Reserve reduced the benchmark lending rate by 25 basis points to 2.0-2.25 percent on Wednesday for the first time in more than a decade.

Elsewhere in Asia, Shanghai Composite Index and Hang Seng were trading lower, while Nikkei and Kospi were in the green in their respective early sessions.

US stocks ended on a negative note on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the rupee declined by 32 paise to 69.12 against the US dollar in morning trade.

The global oil benchmark Brent crude futures rose 0.70 percent to 65.17 per barrel.

— With PTI inputs