Sensex plunges over 700 pts; Nifty drops below 8,400

Mumbai: Equity benchmark Sensex slumped over 700 points in early trade on Wednesday tracking losses in index heavyweights Reliance Industries, Kotak Bank, HDFC Bank and Infosys amid weak cues from global markets.

Starting the new financial year on a negative note, the 30-share BSE barometer was trading 714.74 points or 2.43 per cent lower at 28,753.75.

Similarly, the NSE Nifty fell 199 points, or 2.31 per cent, to 8,398.75.

Kotak Bank was the top loser in the Sensex pack, cracking up to 8 per cent, followed by SBI, Infosys, HDFC Bank, Tech Mahindra and UltraTech Cement.

On the other hand, IndusInd Bank and PowerGrid were the gainers.

In the previous session, the Sensex closed the financial year 2019-20 higher by 1,028.17 points or 3.62 per cent at 29,468.49. The Nifty rose 316.65 points, or 3.82 per cent, to close at 8,597.75.

However, during the fiscal, the Sensex plunged 9,204.42 points or 23.80 per cent, while the Nifty sank 3,026.15 points or 26.03 per cent.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned net sellers in the capital market, as they offloaded equity shares worth Rs 3,044.94 crore on Tuesday, according to provisional exchange data.

According to S Hariharan, Head - Sales Trading, Emkay Global Financial Services: For the month of April, macro risk appetite driven by news flow around potential peaking of fresh COVID-19 cases would be the key driving force for foreign flows, while domestic funds continue to use the correction to increase equities allocation in dynamic asset allocation funds.

On the global front, bourses in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul were in the red, while those in Shanghai were trading on a positive note. Benchmark exchanges on Wall Street too ended with losses in overnight trade.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 0.76 per cent to USD 26.15 per barrel.

The number of COVID-19 cases in India has stood at around 1,400, according to health ministry log. While there are more than 1,200 active cases, over 100 have been cured.

Deaths around the world linked to the pandemic crossed have 40,000.