Sensex Cracks Over 500 Points, Nifty Below 10,550

The S&P BSE Sensex started at 35,204.66 and the Nifty50 barometer of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was at 10,508.70 against their last closing levels of 35,673.25 and 10,693.70 respectively.

At 1:20 pm, the 30-share Sensex was at 35,146.32, down 526.937 points or 1.48 per cent and the 50-scrip Nifty was at 10,532.40, down 161.30 points or 1.51 per cent. Forty one out of 50 Nifty stocks and 25 out of 30-share Sensex pack traded lower.

Points to know about this:

At the time of writing this report, the Sensex had cracked as much as 657.17 points to hit an intraday low of 35,016.08 and the Nifty as much as 207.7.4 points to hit an intraday low of 10,486.

All sectors traded in the red led by losses in financial, pharma, consumer and IT stocks.

In the currency market, the rupee fell to 71.41 against the dollar - its weakest level recorded since November 20, reported news agency Reuters.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slid 1.4 per cent to a near three-week low, according to Reuters. S&P futures fell 0.8 per cent and Dow futures lost 0.8 per cent in the Asian day.

In the bond market, the 10-year benchmark bond yield rose to 7.50 per cent from 7.46 per cent, the Reuters report stated.

Trading between 3.55 and 5.84 per cent lower, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Reliance Industries, Indiabulls Housing Finance, UltraTech Cement and Bajaj Finance were the top Nifty losers.

According to provisional NSE data, foreign portfolio investors sold while domestic institutional investors bought net shares worth Rs. 817.4 crore and Rs. 242.56 crore respectively, on Friday.