Sensex crashes by 1,053 pts and Nifty sheds 333 pts amidst heavy selloff

The key BSE Sensex closed at 70,370.77, down 1,053 points or 1.47 per cent from the previous close while the Nifty 50 closed with a 333 point, or 1.54 per cent loss, at 21,238.80 amidst a broad-based selloff, especially in the mid-cap and small-cap stocks.

The Sensex opened 445 points higher at 71,868.20 and gained as much as 616 points, hitting an intraday high of 72,039.20, before hitting a session’s low of 70,234.55, down 1,189 points. The index closed with a loss of 1,053 points, or 1.47 per cent, at 70,370.55.

The Nifty 50 opened 145 points higher at 21,716.70 and rose 178 points in intraday trade, hitting a high of 21,750.25, only to plunge 379 points, hitting a day’s low of 21,192.60. The index closed down 333 points, or 1.54 per cent, at 21,238.80.

HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, SBI and Larsen & Toubro ended with heavy losses dragging the benchmark indices down.

While profit-taking by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) was the main reason for the market crash, analysts point to waning market sentiment caused by a disappointing show by corporates as the reason for the selloff. Also, they point to growing geopolitical tensions and a general uncertainty in major global economies.

The HDFC Bank stock, which closed the previous session with a gain of about half a per cent, ended Tuesday’s session down 3.45 per cent, registering a 16 per cent loss for the current month. 

Zee Entertainment lost a whopping 32.73 per cent following reports of termination of the merger deal with Sony.

Midcaps and smallcaps in the BSE ended with even deeper losses of around 3 per cent.

BSE listed firms saw a Rs366 lakh crore loss in overall market capitalisation on Tuesday, against the previous day’s loss of nearly Rs374.4 lakh crore, wiping out Rs8.4 lakh crore in investor assets.

After today's close, the Sensex is down 3 per cent while the Nifty 50 has declined over 2 per cent in January so far. However, the midcap and smallcap indices are still in the green with BSE Midcap index up over 1 per cent and the Smallcap index up about 2 per cent in January so far.

However, 10 stocks, including Cipla (up 6.97 per cent), Sun Pharma (up 4.04 per cent) and Bharti Airtel (up 2.97 per cent) managed to end in the green in the Nifty 50 index on Tuesday.

Shares of IndusInd Bank (down 6.18 per cent), Coal India (down 5.58 per cent) and SBI Life Insurance Company (down 4.66 per cent) were the top losers in the Nifty 50 index.

Barring Nifty Healthcare (up 1.81 per cent) and Pharma (up 1.66 per cent), all sectoral indices ended with significant losses.