Sensex falls 379 pts, Nifty nears 21,650; these stocks among the winners

Benchmark Sensex declined by 379 points on Tuesday due to profit-taking in bank and IT shares after recent sharp gains and fresh foreign fund outflows.

The 30-share BSE Sensex fell by 379 points or 0.53 per cent to settle at 71,892. During the day, it tumbled 658 points or 0.91 per cent to a low of 71,615.

The broader Nifty declined by 76 points or 0.35 per cent to close at 21,666. As many as 31 Nifty shares declined while 19 advanced.

Among the Sensex firms, Kotak Mahindra Bank, UltraTech Cement, Mahindra & Mahindra, Larsen & Toubro, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Wipro and Hindustan Unilever were the major laggards.

Sun Pharma, Bajaj Finance, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finserv and Titan were among the winners.

The market extended yesterday’s last hour’s sell-off, taking negative cues from Asian peers due to weak Chinese manufacturing data and mounting tensions in the Red Sea, which has the potential to disrupt global trade and crude supplies," Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said.

"Ahead of the impending results season, investors are adopting a profit booking strategy. Auto stocks declined on below-expected volume numbers, while pharma stocks were the standout due to catch-up in the US economy," Nair added.

The BSE gauge eked out a modest gain of 32 points or 0.04 per cent to settle at 72,272 after a muted beginning on Monday. The Nifty went up by 11 points or 0.05 per cent to 21,742.

In 2023, the BSE benchmark jumped 11,399.52 points or 19 per cent, and the Nifty climbed 3,626.1 points or 20 per cent.