Sensex falls 1200 points, Bank index slips 3%

Mumbai, Feb 14: The domestic benchmark indices started trade sharply lower on Monday. The BSE Sensex fell 1,249 points to 56,904, while the NSE Nifty was down 356 points at 17,019.

On the Sensex-30 shares, barring TCS (up 1 per cent), all the other stocks were in the red zone, led by M&M, ICICI Bank, HDFC, SBI, Dr Reddy’s, Tata Steel, L&T, Bajaj Finserv, Maruti, IndusInd Bank, and Bharti Airtel, trading 2.6-4.5 per cent lower. On the Nifty, ONGC (up 2 per cent) was the other sole gainer, while, JSW Steel, HDFC Life, and Tata Motors were the additonal losers.

TCS was the sole gainer on the Sensex after the IT services giant on Sunday said the members of the company had approved the buyback of shares worth up to Rs 18,000 crore by passing a special resolution through postal ballot. It has fixed February 23, 2022, as the record date to determine the entitlement and names of the shareholders who will be eligible to participate in the buyback.

In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices were also deep in red, down 2.7 per cent and 3.15 per cent, respectively. Sectorally, all Nifty indices were in the negative territory, led by losses in Nifty Bank, PSU Bank indices, down nearly 3 per cent and 4 per cent, respectively. The Nifty Auto, Realty, Metals, Financial Services were all nearly 3 per cent lower. The Nifty IT and Pharma indices had the lowest cut of 0.6 and 0.8 per cent, respectively.