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The Sensex plunged 1,172 points while the Nifty crashed below the 17,200-level on Monday, hammered by robust selling in market heavyweights Infosys and HDFC Bank following their below-estimate results.
A weakening rupee and lacklustre macroeconomic data added to the woes, traders said.
Resuming trade after a two-day holiday last week, the BSE Sensex tumbled 1,172.19 points or 2.01 per cent to settle at 57,166.74 — marking its fourth straight session of loss.
Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty plunged 302 points or 1.73 per cent to 17,173.65.
Infosys was the top loser in the Sensex pack, plummeting 7.27 per cent, after the country’s second-largest software services company posted a 12 per cent rise in its March quarter net profit, missing market estimates.
HDFC Bank lost 4.74 per cent after the largest private sector lender on Saturday reported a 23 per cent jump in Q4 standalone net profit, led by lower provisions, even as other metrics like net interest income came in below expectations.
HDFC, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, TCS and HCL Tech were the other major laggards
In contrast, NTPC, Tata Steel, Maruti, Titan, HUL, M&M and Nestle India were among the gainers, spurting as much as 6.11 per cent.
The market breadth was negative, with 20 of the 30 Sensex constituents closing in the red.
“After a long weekend, we witnessed huge fall of 2 per cent in the benchmark index. The fall was mainly on account of below estimate results of Infosys and HDFC Bank and the rising tension between Russia and Ukraine.
“We expect further fall in markets in coming days considering the recent rise of COVID cases in India and rising inflation concerns across the globe,” said Rahul Sharma, Research Head, Equity 99.
India’s wholesale price-based inflation spiked to a four-month high of 14.55 per cent in March on rising prices of crude oil and other commodities due to disruption in global supply chain in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war, a development that may prompt the RBI to raise interest rates to contain price rise.
“Unfavourable start to earnings season in heavyweight stocks of IT and banking sector led to heavy sell-off. Lower-than-expected results prompted the market to worry about the headwinds faced by IT sector like attrition, wage inflation, lower utilszation, and cut in IT spending by industries due to geopolitical and macro issues.
“The degree of downfall is high because the sector was trading at high valuation and risk of a downgrade in outlook has increased,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
The BSE smallcap gauge fell 1.01 per cent, while the midcap index lost 0.95 per cent.
As many as 2,062 stocks declined, while 1,462 advanced and 146 remained unchanged.
Among BSE sectoral indices, IT declined the most by 4.76 per cent, followed by teck (4.60 per cent), finance (2.12 per cent) and telecom (1.77 per cent).
Asian markets closed lower as investors fretted about rising COVID-19 cases and lockdowns in China.
Bourses in Europe were shut for Easter holidays.
International oil benchmark Brent crude slipped 0.18 per cent to USD 111.5 per barrel.
The rupee declined 6 paise to close at 76.25 (provisional) against the US dollar on Monday, tracking the strength of the greenback overseas.
Foreign institutional investors offloaded shares worth a net Rs 2,061.04 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.
