Sensex, Nifty witness a sudden crash; midcaps, smallcaps tumble 

Benchmark indices saw heavy selling pressure on Monday, led by a pain in smallcaps and midcap stocks. Sensex slipped 610 pts to close at 85,102 and Nifty ended 226 pts lower at 25,960. There were just six gainers in the Nifty Mid Cap 100 index namely Policy Bazaar, Phoenix Mills, Coromandel International amaong others. Monday's market weakness saw bottom coming out of mid-caps and small-caps.

The crash was caused by a 700 point cut on the Nifty Bank and the continued weakness in the IT indices. Rupee was also weak, trading above 90.10 adding to the selling pressure in equity market.

BSE small cap index tumbled 1,126 pts to 49,967 and midcap index crashed 807 pts to close at 45,810.

Of 30 Sensex stocks, 26 ended in the red. Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, RIL, HDFGC Bank were the only Sensex gainers, rising up to 1.4%.

As many as 88 stocks hit their 52-week highs today. On the other hand, 527 shares fell to their 52-week lows on BSE.

Market breadth was negative as out of 4485 stocks traded, 3,348 stocks were in the red. Around 187 stocks remained unchanged.

Shrikant Chouhan, Head Equity Research, Kotak Securities said, "Technically, on daily charts, it has formed a long bearish candle and also closed below the 20-day SMA (Simple Moving Average), which is largely negative. We believe that as long as the market is trading below the 20-day SMA or 26,000/85400, the weak sentiment is likely to continue. On the downside, it could slip till 25,850/84800. Further downside may also continue, potentially dragging the index to 25,750/84500. On the flip side, above 26,000/85400, we could see a one  pullback rally up to 26,100-26,125/85700-85800."

Nilesh Jain, Head – Technical and Derivatives Research Analyst (Equity Research), Centrum Broking said, "Nifty halted its two-day winning streak with a strong bearish candle on the daily chart. It slipped below the short-term 21-DMA around 26,000, which now becomes the immediate resistance zone. A sell signal on the MACD and a bearish divergence on the RSI further reinforce the cautious tone. Overall, the setup points to a consolidation phase, with the index likely to oscillate within the broader 25,800–26,200 range in the near term. The drop was also accompanied by a sharp 7% rise in INDIA VIX to 11, signalling heightened uncertainty."