Sensex drops 205 points, worst single-day fall in a month

Mumbai: Market posted its worst single-day fall in nearly one month as the benchmark BSE Sensex plunged by 205 points to 27,710.52 after earnings of HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank raised concerns over bad loans, while global cues remained largely muted.

Investors also turned cautious over passage of the long- pending GST bill in Rajya Sabha in the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament.

Meanwhile, profit-booking by retail investors dragged down mid-cap and small-cap indices by 0.19 percent and 0.14 percent, respectively.

Shares of the second largest private sector lender HDFC Bank fell 0.30 percent to Rs 1,228.45 despite reporting a 20.15 percent increase in profit to Rs 3,238.91 crore.

Kotak Mahindra Bank plummeted 2.71 percent to Rs 760.80, even as it posted almost fourfold jump in standalone net profit to Rs 741.97 crore. Net NPAs rose to 1.06 percent of net advances as of June quarter.

Axis Bank was the worst performed on the Sensex, falling by 3.62 percent to Rs 538.25.

"While cement and pharma stocks gained on sector specific announcements, banks fell ahead of key earnings, and looked to have run out of fuel after the capital infusion announcement, lending a weak bias to market," said Anand James, Chief Market Strategist, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.

After opening higher, the BSE Sensex slipped into the negative zone on profit-book and touched a low of 27,687.54.

Riding on the initial rise, the total market valuation of the BSE-listed companies surged to an all-time high of Rs 107 lakh crore during the day. However, it later pared some of the gains to settle at Rs 1,06,25,058 crore.

The Sensex finally settled 205.37 points or 0.74 percent lower at 27,710.52. It had fallen by 604.51 points on June 24.

The NSE Nifty ended 55.75 points or 0.65 percent down at 8,510.10. Intra-day, it touched a low of 8,503.45.

Shares of L&T Infotech made a sluggish debut on bourses today, falling 1.73 percent to Rs 697.65 against the issue price of Rs 710.

Elsewhere, Asian shares ended mostly higher with Nikkei leading the pack by 0.77 percent on reports that Japan is planning more stimulus. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.54 percent while China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.37 percent.

Europe, however, was lower with London's FTSE down 0.37 percent and Paris 0.41 percent lower, while Frankfurt shed 0.20 percent. 

Back home, 23 stocks out of the 30-share Sensex pack ended

lower.

Major losers included, Power Grid (3.13 percent), SBI (2.30 percentt), Dr Reddy's (2.15 percent), ICICI Bank (2.13 percent), M&M (1.76 percent), Tata Steel (1.67 percent), Lupin (1.65 percent), NTPC (1.56 percent), RIL (1.55 percent), Maruti (1.17 percent) and L&T (0.96 percent).

However, Coal India rose by 1.21 percent, followed by Adani Ports 1.13 percent, Asian Paints 1.06 percent, Bharti Airtel 0.84 percent, Wipro 0.72 percent and HUL 0.36 percent.

Among the sectoral indices, power fell by 2.10 percent followed by utilities 1.73 percent, bankex 1.70 percent, finance 1.02 percent, capital goods 1.01 percent, healthcare 0.80 percent, realty 0.78 percent, auto 0.70 percent and metal 0.63 percent.

The market breadth turned negative as 1,595 stocks ended in red, 1,089 stocks closed in green while 185 stocks ruled steady.

Total turnover rose to Rs 3,388.14 crore from Rs 3,196.09 crore yesterday.