Sensex tumbles over 300 points; Nifty below 15,300

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Mumbai: Equity benchmark Sensex dropped over 300 points in early trade on February 17, tracking losses in index majors HDFC twins, ICICI Bank and TCS amid a weak trend in global markets.

The 30-share BSE index was trading 310.50 points or 0.60% lower at 51,793.67.

Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty was quoting 74.35 points or 0.49% down at 15,239.10.

Nestle India was the top laggard in the Sensex pack, shedding around 4%, followed by ONGC, HDFC, TCS, PowerGrid and ICICI Bank.

On the other hand, Bajaj Auto, SBI, Bajaj Finance and Reliance Industries were among the gainers.

In the previous session, Sensex settled 49.96 points or 0.10 per cent lower at 52,104.17, and Nifty inched 1.25 points or 0.01 per cent lower to close at 15,313.45.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in the capital market as they purchased shares worth Rs 1,144.09 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.

According to Binod Modi, Head-Strategy at Reliance Securities, domestic markets do not look to be inspiring at the moment. A continued buying from FPIs has been a major driving force for the market in the recent period.

“The recent revival in earnings rebound is likely to sustain in subsequent fiscals. However, rise in commodity prices and risk emanating from hardening bold yields could be a medium-term concern. While we remain positive about the outlook of equities for the long-term perspective, markets may witness some amount of pullback in the near term and rotational trading might be visible,” he said.

Modi noted that US equities finished mostly lower on Tuesday as sharp spike in 10-year treasury yield and energy prices dampened investors’ sentiments.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Hong Kong were trading on a positive note in mid-session deals, while those in Tokyo and Seoul were in the red.

Meanwhile, the global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.21 per cent higher at USD 63.48 per barrel.