Sensex Tumbles Over 1000 Points; Infosys, HDFC Bank Under Pressure

Indian equity benchmark indices fell sharply in early trade on Monday as investors tracked weak global cues and lower than expected quarterly results for Infosys and HDFC Bank.

At 10:26 am, the BSE Sensex was trading 1231.20 points, or 2.11 per cent, lower at 57,107.73. While Nifty50 was trading at 17,145, down 329.80 points or 1.89 per cent.

Asian markets were also weak after Chinese GDP growth numbers, hurt by Covid curbs, came in at 4.8 per cent in March quarter.

“Tracking weakness in other Asian indices, market turbulence may be a theme in today’s trading session as investors at Dalal Street brace to react to the multi-decade print of US CPI which has bolstered the odds of a jumbo rate hike by the Federal Reserve. The street will first react to Infosys earnings announced after market hours on April 13 and HDFC Bank numbers, which were released on April 16,” said Prashanth Tapse, Vice President (Research), Mehta Equities.

Infosys was down 6.84 per cent at Rs 1,629. It also dragged other IT counters such as Tech Mahindra (down 5 per cent), HCL Tech (down 2.38 per cent) and Wipro (down 2.99 per cent).

HDFC Bank fell for the eight straight session and was trading at Rs 1,415.00, 3.40 per cent lower.

“Technically speaking, Nifty’s intraday support is seen only at 17427 mark. The make-or-break for Nifty’s medium term support is seen at the 200-DMA at 17160 mark. Only below  17160 zone, expect a waterfall of selling which could take Nifty down to 16691 mark with inter-month perspective. From a chartist standpoint, the technical landscape will improve considerably only if the index closes above its biggest hurdles at 17927 mark,” said Tapse.