Nifty plunges 71 points as sell-off intensify; Sun TV tanks 22%

Indian markets extended their losses for the fifth consecutive session due to across-the-board selling with the Nifty plunging by 71 points as impending macro economic worries continued to dominate investor sentiment.

Mumbai: Indian markets extended their losses for the fifth consecutive session due to across-the-board selling with the Nifty plunging by 71 points as impending macro economic worries continued to dominate investor sentiment.

With concerns surrounding the growth recovery against the backdrop of RBI's recent cautious stance amid fears of poor monsoon as well as dismal corporate earnings predominatly weighed on investors' mood.

Heightened nervousness over foreign funds unwinding on expectation of a rate hike by the US Fed and depreciating rupee value further dampened the trading sentiment.

The Nifty has lost nearly 390 points, or 4.67 percent in the last five trading sessions.

Selling was both brutal and wide-based as market turned extreme volatile after the benchmark indices breached the crucial 8,050 support level late afternoon trade.

Elsewhere in Asia, equities finished narrowly mixed tracking developments in Greece and spike bond yield rally on a strong US jobs report, while China's Shanghai Composite index jumped to fresh seven-year peaks, outperforming the region.

The broader 50-share barometer oscillated between a high of 8,131 and a low of 8,030.55 before concluding at 8,044.15, revealing a sharp loss of 70.55 points, or 0.87 percent, over its weekend close.

Among the sectoral indices, Media tanked by 3.04 percent after shares of Sun TV plunged 21.82 percent to close at Rs 278.65 - its worst single-day fall after MHA denies security clearance to channels.

It was followed by PSU banks 2.14 percent, Metal 1.64 percent, energy 1.43 percent, healthcare 1.30 percent, fmcg 1.29 percent and Auto 1.16 percent alongwith infra, realty, financials and technology. The midcap and smallcap indices were down over 1.64 and 1.86 percent each, respectively.

Petrochemical major Reliance Industries was the biggest contributor to Nifty's slide. Other laggards included HDFC, Sun Pharma, Bosch, HDFC Bank, Tata Motors, HUL, Infosys, SBI, Vedanta, Indusind, Heromotoco, Idea, Bharti, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, HCL-Tech, Asian Paints, Maruti, PNB, Bank of Baroda, Zee, Cipla, Cairn, L&T, ONGC and BPCL.

Notable smart movers were Axis Bank, Bajaj Auto, Power Grid, Tata Power, NMDC, Ambuja Cements, TCS, Lupin and ITC.

In individual stocks news, shares of Nestle remained under intense sell-off, falling as much as 7.36 percent to end at 5,569.00 following controversy around Maggi.

Turnover in the cash segment slumped to Rs 12,894.29 crore from Rs 15,088.46 on last Friday. A total of 6,492.67 lakh shares changed hands in 65,18,620 trades and the total market capitalisation of the NSE stood at Rs 94,96,273 crore.

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