CLOSING BELL: After gyrating in a narrow band, albeit in the negative zone, for the major part of the trading day, the key benchmark indices cracked heavily in late trades as rising geopolitical crisis, tepid FII flows, and a gloomy global market scenario weighed.
Even better-than-expected Q2 performance from TCS, and a proposed share buyback plan by Infosys failed to cheer investor sentiment.
The BSE benchmark index briefly hovered in the positive zone as the index touched a high of 58,028 this morning. Towards the end of the day, the BSE index had slumped to a low of 57,050 - down 978 points from the high of the day.
The Sensex finally ended with a heavy loss of 844 points at 57,147. In the process, the BSE benchmark index has now shed 1,075 points in the last three straight trading sessions.
The NSE Nifty not only dipped below the 17,000-mark, but also below its psychological 200-DMA (Daily Moving Average) placed at 16,986, yet again. The Nifty 50 finally settled at 16,984 - down 258 points on Tuesday.
Among individual stocks, Infosys was down 2.5 per cent. Shares of
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) declined up to 2 per cent after the company clocked 8 per cent net profit in Q2FY23.
READ ANALYSIS HERE Among other IT stocks, Tech Mahindra too shed 2.5 per cent. HCL Technologies and Wipro too declined 2 per cent each ahead of their Q2 results.
Also read: Earnings Preview - Wipro I HCL Technologies IndusInd Bank, down 3.7 per cent, was the major per centage loser among the Sensex 30. Nestle India, Tata Steel, Dr.Reddy's, Titan, Reliance Industries, Maruti, and Hindustan Unilever were the other major losers. Axis Bank and Asian Paints were the only gainers, up around a per cent each.
The broader indices also cracked in tandem with the benchmark index. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were down around 1.5 per cent each.
Sectorally, apart from the BSE IT index, which declined 2 per cent, the Consumer Durables, Metal and Realty indices were the other major losers - down 2-3 per cent each.
The overall market breadth, too, was fairly negative with more than two declining stocks for every advancing share on the BSE.