Sensex dives over 400 points, Nifty trades below 19,700; Infosys, Bharat Bijlee, Kalyan Jewellers fall up to 3%

Indian equity benchmarks fell sharply in early trade on Friday. The domestic indices were dragged by banks, financials, technology and metal stocks. The 30-share BSE Sensex slipped 407 points or 0.61 per cent to trade at 66,002, while the NSE Nifty was down 116 points or 0.58 per cent to trade at 19,678. Broader markets (mid- and small-cap shares) also felt the pain today as Nifty Midcap 100 was down 0.18 per cent and small-cap shed 0.10 per cent.

On the global front, Asian markets traded lower, tracking an overnight drop in Wall Street equities. Back home, retail inflation in September eased to a three-month low of 5.02 per cent.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold Indian shares on a net basis during the previous session, offloading Rs 1,862.57 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 1,532.08 crore. FIIs remained net seller for 17th consecutive session.

14 out of the 15 sector gauges -- compiled by the NSE -- were trading in the red. Sub-indexes Nifty Bank, Nifty Financial Services, Nifty IT and Nifty Metal were underperforming the NSE platform by falling as much as 0.66 per cent, 0.50 per cent, 0.54 per cent and 0.63 per cent, respectively. On the flip side, Nifty Oil & Gas edged 0.03 per cent higher.

On the stock-specific front, Infosys was the top loser in the Nifty pack as the stock cracked 2.92 per cent to trade at Rs 1,421.85. Axis Bank, Adani Enterprises, State Bank of India (SBI) and Wipro fell up to 2.11 per cent.

In contrast, HCL Tech, Tata Consumer Products, Hero MotoCorp, Coal India and ONGC were among the top gainers.

The overall market breadth was positive as 1,613 shares were advancing while 1,199 were declining on BSE.

On the 30-share BSE index, stocks such as Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, L&T and Tech Mahindra were among the top laggards.

Also, Bharat Bijlee, Kalyan Jewellers, Bank of Baroda and Chalet Hotels tanked up to 2.41 per cent. On the other hand, MMTC, ITI, KSCL, Agi Greenpac and Angel One jumped up to 11.14 per cent.

On Thursday, Sensex had slipped 65 points or 0.10 per cent to close at 66,408, while Nifty had moved 17 points or 0.09 per cent down to settle at 19,794.

Nifty outlook

"Nifty witnessed a flat session with a narrow rangebound movement for the entire day but significant participation once again was witnessed from the broader markets. The index maintains have the near-term support zone of 19,600 while on the upside 20,000 zone would be the near-term target expected as of now. The support for the day is seen at 19,700 levels while the resistance is seen at 19,950 level," said Vaishali Parekh, Vice-President - Technical Research at Prabhudas Lilladher.

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