Sensex ends 365pts lower, Nifty holds 16,300; RIL cracks 4%, Infy gains 2%

The key benchmark indices ended off the day's low led by renewed buying interest in select IT and financial shares. Earlier in the day, the indices fell sharply tracking weak cues from the overseas markets.

The S&P BSE Sensex tumbled to a low of 53,918 in the opening trades dragged by index heavyweight Reliance Industries and FMCG majors. The BSE index recouped partly and ended 364 points lower at 54,471. The NSE Nifty was down 109 points at 16,302.

Among the Sensex 30 stocks, Reliance Industries plunged over 4 per cent after the Mukesh Ambani-led oil-to-chemicals (O2C) company on Friday reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 16,203 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2022 (Q4 FY22), up 22.5 per cent over the year-ago period’s Rs 13,227 crore, but slightly short of expectations. READ TECH VIEW

Nestle India and IndusInd Bank tanked 3 per cent each. Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra, SBI, Hindustan Unilever, ITC and Axis Bank were the other major losers. 

On the positive front, PowerGrid Corporation and HCL Technologies zoomed over 3 per cent each. Infosys jumped nearly 2 per cent. Maruti, Bajaj Finserv and HDFC were other other prominent gainers. 

Also read:  Mid, smallcaps may outperform in 2022 despite near-term headwinds: Analysts 

The broader markets ended with deeper cuts. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were down over 1.5 per cent each. The breadth too was fairly negative, with more than two declining stocks for every advancing share on the BSE.

Among other stocks, LTI Infotech and Mindtree tanked over 5 per cent each following merger announcement by Larsen & Toubro. As per the merger agreement, shareholders of Mindtree will receive 73 shares of LTI in exchange for 100 shares in the former. LTI finally ended 3.4 per cent lower, while Mindtree shed 5.3 per cent at close. READ MORE

Sectorally, the BSE Energy and Power indices plunged over 2 per cent each. The Consumer Durables, FMCG and Metal indices were the other major losers in trade on Monday. The IT and Telecom indices were the only gainers.

Meanwhile, in the currency market, Rupee fell below the 77/$ mark for the first time ever, hitting a record low of 77.5 against USD.

Primary market update

As of 3:30 PM, the LIC IPO, that closes for subscrption today, was subscribed 2.8 times. Categories reserved for policyholders and employees were subscribed over 6 times and 4.3 times, respectively. The retail invetsor portion was subscribed 1.9 times. QIB and NII categories also got fully subscribed, by nearly 3 times each.