The stock market on Wednesday came under pressure following a strong rebound in the previous session. The Nifty 50 fell below 23,850 during intraday trading amid selling across sectors.
At the close, the Sensex fell 1,342.27 points, or 1.72%, to 76,863.71, while the Nifty dropped 394.75 points, or 1.63%, to 23,866.85.
The Nifty Midcap index fell 1.2%, while the Smallcap index declined 0.36%. The overall market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms fell to over Rs 442 lakh crore from over Rs 447 lakh crore in the previous session.
Among the sectors, auto, FMCG, PSU Bank, consumer durables, private banks, capital goods, IT, and realty were the biggest losers, while oil & gas and pharma indices ended with marginal gains.
On the Nifty, the key gainers were NTPC, Jio Financial, Coal India, Sun Pharma, and Dr Reddy’s Labs, while the major losers included Bajaj Finance, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Eicher Motors, and M&M.
Around 180 stocks touched their 52-week low on the BSE. These included Aegis Logistics, Hexaware Technologies, Coforge, IRCTC, KPR Mills, Godrej Industries, Emami, Five-Star Business, Jubilant Food, TCS, Tata Technologies, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Jyothy Labs, Relaxo Footwear, and JK Lakshmi Cement, among others.
The key losers in the FMCG stocks were Colgate-Palmolive (India), Marico, Emami, and Tata Consumer Products. In the auto stocks, TVS Motor Company, Ashok Leyland, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hyundai Motor India, and Eicher Motors witnessed losses.
The Bank Nifty, which fell over 2%, witnessed heavy selling in private lenders such as Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, and ICICI Bank. Union Bank declined nearly 2.9%, while IndusInd Bank fell 2.4% and Federal Bank slipped nearly 2.4%.
In Asian markets, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.9%, while the MSCI Emerging Markets Index also gained 0.8%.