Sensex falls 400 points, Nifty trading below 17,500; banking , IT shares lead losses

Benchmark indices opened lower today, falling for the fourth straight session amid weak global cues. While Sensex slipped 405 points to 58,720, Nifty fell 127 points to 17,490.

Of 30 Sensex stocks, 25 were trading in the red. Maruti , Bajaj Finserv, HDFC Bank, ICCI Bank , and Titan were the top Sensex losers, falling up to 2.11%.

Top Sensex gainers were PowerGrid , NTPC and Bajaj Auto, rising up to 1.69%. BSE midcap and small cap indices fell 64 points and rose 33 points, respectively.

On the sectoral front, metal shares led the gains with the BSE metal index trading 105 points higher at 20,471. BSE consumer durables index gained 123 points to 41,041.

On the other hand, banking, metal and IT shares, were the top losers. BSE IT index lost 178 points to 34,239, BSE bankex fell 327 points to 42,400 and BSE metal index lost 159 points to 20,022.

Market cap of BSE-listed firms stood at Rs 259.26 lakh crore.

V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services said, "In India, there are indications of a correction. The leader of this rally, IT, is showing signs of exhaustion. When the leader turns weak, the resilience of the market will be tested. Sustained FII selling is another negative signal. The 'buy on dips' strategy that has been playing out well since April 2020 may not work so smoothly, going forward. The risk-reward ratio now is clearly against reward. Investors have to be cautious. Some portfolio rebalancing in favour of defensives & fixed income may be considered."

Market breadth was marginally positive with 1,261 shares trading higher against 1,231 shares in the red. 124 stocks were unchanged.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 2,225 crore on September 30, and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 97.18 crore, as per provisional data available on NSE.

Global markets

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index fell 87 points to 24,575. The Shanghai Composite index was higher at 3,568. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 declined 168 points to 7,164. Nikkei lost 590 points to 28,861.   

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 slipped 52 points to 4,307, the Nasdaq dropped 63 points to 14,448 and the Dow crashed 546 points to 33,843.