Sensex Tanks 1200 Pts, Nifty Below 18k; Worst Fall For Sensex Since April

Sensex fell more than 1,200 points in the day's trade on Thursday, October 28 while the Nifty-50 slipped below 18,000, breaking its resistance levels. At close, the Sensex was down 1,158.63 points at 59,984.70, and the Nifty-50 was at 17,857.25, down 353.70 points.

In the 30-share pack Sensex, only six scrips ended in the green while the other 26 counters ended in the red amid heavy selling pressure. Shares of ITC tanked the most in the intraday session post its Q2 results, closing down over five per cent, while those of HDFC Bank, SBI, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and ICICI Bank slipped 3-4 per cent each.

The broader markets also reflected the headline indices as both BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices fell over a per cent each. Shares of Bank of India, IDFC First Bank, and Union Bank were the top Midcap losers, falling 5-7 per cent each.

What dragged the markets today?

Heavy selling in the banking stocks and monthly expiry of the Future and Option contracts for the current month dampened the investor sentiment in the markets today. Adding to it, sustained selling from the Foreign Institutional Investors coupled with downgrading from forein brokerages amid the sustained rally in the Indian markets wherein the valuations crosses its peaks also hit the sentiment, experts pointed out.

Santosh Meena, Head of Research, Swastika Investmart, said, "Relentless selling by FIIs is a key reason for this correction in the market.  Today, Morgan Stanley downgrades India to equal weight due to outperformance by Indian markets in recent months."

He further added that the sudden spike in Covid-19 cases across some countries is also alarming for the markets in the current situation.

However, experts find these kinds of corrections to be healthy in a long bull run and such opportunities should be used to add quality stocks. "These kinds of corrections will provide good buying opportunities in quality stocks," Meena added.