Sensex ends 740 points down at 48,440; Nifty at 14,325

Indian benchmark equity indices, Sensex and Nifty ended sharply lower Thursday dragged by heavy selling across the board with auto, PSU banks, energy, IT and FMCG indices falling the most.

S&P BSE Sensex closed 740 points lower at 48,440 points while the 50-stock NSE Nifty was at 14,324 — each falling 1.5% today. 

Maruti Suzuki, Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever, Bajaj Finance, ONGC, UltraTech Cement, and Reliance Industries were the top laggards on the Sensex, while Indian Oil Corporation, Hero MotoCorp, Coal India, Eicher Motors, and Britannia were the additional losers on the Nifty. These stocks were down between 3 per cent and 4 per cent.

Global markets

Global equities languished close to two-week lows on Thursday, while the dollar cruised to near a four-month high against the euro as investors worried that Europe's Covid-19 response was falling behind that in the United States.

European markets opened lower, with the STOXX index of 600 European shares down 0.1 per cent in early trade. MSCI’s gauge of world stocks, meanwhile, was 0.03 per cent lower. Its broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.2 per cent.

Weighing on sentiment was a selloff in Chinese technology shares due to concerns they will be delisted from US bourses and worries about a semiconductor shortage.

In Hong Kong, companies with US listings led declines. China’s blue-chip CSI300 index edged 0.05 per cent lower.

(With inputs from Reuters)