Sensex drops over 300 pts; Nifty below 17,300 dragged by auto, banking and IT stocks

23 Mar 2022 , 01:14 PM

After the bullish start during early bells on Wednesday, Indian markets extend losses during the afternooon trading session with benchmark Sensex erasing below 57,700-mark and Nifty 50 giving up on 17,450-level so far in the day. A broad-based selloff was recorded across the baskets with banking and financials, auto and IT stocks nosediving the most. Among sectors, auto, bank, IT indices are trading in the red, while pharma and power indices up 1 per cent each to hold  the gains.

At around 1:15 PM, Sensex was trading at 57,670.59 lower by 318.71 points or 0.55%. The index has dropped to the day’s low of 57,621.42.

Nifty 50 performed at 17,239.85 lower by 75.65 points or 0.44%. The benchmark has hit an intraday low of 17,215.20.

Nifty Pharma, PSU Bank, media, metal stocks were among the gainers so far today. FMCG sector major ITC stocks in focus today as it inches towards 52-week high.

Top bulls on Nifty 50 were – Dr Reddy’s (+3.6%), Divis Lab (+2.3%), Hindalco, ITC and UPL.

Top bears on Nifty 50 were – Bharti Airtel, Hero MotoCorp, HDFC, Kotak Bank, Britannia tumbling between 1.5-2%.

This week markets sentiment will be influenced by Inflationary pressure, crude oil prices, RBI’s MPC meeting, Russia-Ukraine war, US inflation data and other global indices performance.