Mumbai: Massive unwinding in front-line stocks dragged down the benchmark Nifty below the important 7,500 mark Friday, a day after Narendra Modi government unveiled its first budget.
Financials, oil&gas, metal, auto and realty counters suffered the most; midcaps and smallcaps which had seen a robust rally in the run-up to the budget also encountered heavy selling.
The 50-share index fluctuated between a high of 7,625.85 and a low of 7,447.20 before concluding at 7,459.60, a sharp slide of 108.15 points, or 1.43 percent, on the National Stock Exchange.
Amidst the sharp sell-off, IT stocks attracted huge buying interest as India's second largest software services exporter and outsourcing giant Infosys reported a healthy 21.6 percent increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 2,886 crore for the Q1. Healthcare and fmcg also rallied on some low-level buying.
Big-ticket announcements in the Union Budget fell short of market expectations, disappointing the investors.
Some worries over valuations ahead of the Q1 earnings seasons start also weighed.
Despite a strong start early buoyed by robust earnings from Tech major Infosys, bourses literally fell prey to weak hands and succumbed to intense selling pressure.
PSU engineering major BHEL was the biggest index loser with the stock plunging 8.41 percent followed by NMDC 7.11 percent, Jindal Steel 6.82 percent, DLF 5.87 percent, Bank of Baroda 5.50 percent, Hindalco 5.39 percent, SBIN 4.94 percent, L&T 4.82 percent, PNB 4.27 percent and BPCL 4.16 percent.
However, the key gainers included TCS, Sun Pharma, Hindunilvr, Dr Reddy, HCL-Tech, Lupin, TechM, Wipro, Infosys and ITC.
Turnover in the cash segment dropped to Rs 19,323.63 crore from Rs 25,924.52 crore yesterday. A total of 11,383.57 lakh shares changed hands in 81,62,321 trades, while the market capitalisation stood at Rs 85,44,954 crore.
