Mumbai: The benchmark Sensex on Friday hit new high of 29,844.16 but succumbed to heavy profit-booking led by banking shares to fall by 498.82 points to 29,182.95, logging its worst drop in three weeks, even as the government's mega share sale in Coal India sailed through.
The NSE Nifty, which hit its all-time high of 8,996.60 earier in the session, snapped its ten-day long rally to close at 8,808.90, down by 143.45 points or 1.60 percent.
"Domestic bourses witnessed steep decline on Friday, tracking negative global cues and profit taking in index majors across the board," said Religare Securities, President-retail distribution, Jayant Manglik.
Market breadth was negative, and volumes were higher than the last session. Among the sectoral indices, Banking was the top loser, down by more than three percent, followed by Consumer Durables and Auto. Capital Goods, Metal and Oil & Gas were other major losers.
In major earnings, country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank today posted 13.68 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 3,265.32 crore for the third quarter ended December. Its shares dropped nearly 5 percent on asset quality concerns, brokers said.
"Q3 earnings triggered a sell off on banking and financial stocks today. Bank of Baroda posted weak Q3 results causing significant sell off on PSBs and private banks," said WealthRays Securities Director & CEO Kiran Kumar Kavikondala.
Meanwhile, in the biggest ever disinvestment exercise, the government's 10 percent stake sale in Coal India today got over subscribed by 1.05 times and fetched about Rs 22,600 crore although retail investors did not bid so aggressively.
This is also the biggest ever share sale by any private or public sector company in India and exceeds the previous record of over Rs 15,000 crore made by CIL itself in 2010.
The BSE Sensex opened higher at 29,801.60 and shot up further to all-time high of 29,844.16 on strong initial buying in view of strong foreign capital inflows.
But, immediately declined to 29,070.48 on profit-booking ending at 29,182.95, disclosing a sharp fall of 498.82 points or 1.68 percent from its last close. This is its worst drop since January 6, 2014 when it tanked by 854.86 points.
Meanwhile, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) bought shares worth net Rs 1723.77 crore yesterday as per provisional data.
In overseas markets, Asian stocks ended lower. Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, China, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan dropped by 0.09 percent to 1.59 percent while Japan's Nikkei moved up by 0.39 percent.
European stocks were trading lower in their afternoon trade as key indices in France, Germany and UK moved down by 0.02 percent to 0.55 percent.
Back home, 22 scrips out of the 30-share Sensex pack finished lower while remaining eight closed higher.
Other major losers were SBI (5.13 percent), Dr Reddy's Lab (3.91 percent), HDFC (3.35 percent), M&M (2.49 percent), TCS (2.37 percent), Tata Motors (2.10 percent), Hindalco (1.83 percent), Axis Bank (1.75 percent), HDFC Bank (1.67 percent), RIL (1.35 percent), Maruti (1.14 percent) and Larsen & Toubro (1.12 percent).
However, Tata Power rose by 2.90 percent, BHEL 1.62 percent and NTPC 1.37 percent.
Among the S&P BSE sectoral indices, Bankex fell by 3.14 percent, followed by Consumer Durables 1.85 percent, Auto 1.21 percent and Capital Goods by 0.71 percent while Realty rose by 2.17 percent.
Total market breadth continued to remain negative as 1,620 stocks ended in the red, 1,241 closed in the green and 114 ruled steady. Total turnover rose to Rs 4,050.15 crore from Rs 3,744.47 crore yesterday.
