Sensex falls by 728 pts, snaps 7-day gaining streak on profit-booking

Mumbai: Stock markets snapped the seven-day winning run on Wednesday with benchmark Sensex tanking 728 points due to profit-taking in banking and IT shares ahead of monthly expiry of derivatives contracts.

The 30-share BSE Sensex declined by 728.69 points or 0.93 per cent to settle at 77,288.50 as 25 of its components closed in the red. During the day, it slumped 822.97 points or 1.05 per cent to 77,194.22.

The NSE Nifty dropped 181.80 points or 0.77 per cent to 23,486.85.

In the past seven trading days, the BSE benchmark index jumped 4,188.28 points or 5.67 per cent. The Nifty surged 1,271.45 points or 5.67 per cent during the same period.

From the Sensex pack, NTPC, Tech Mahindra, Zomato, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance, Infosys, Maruti, State Bank of India, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Reliance Industries, Hindustan Unilever, and HDFC Bank were the losers. IndusInd Bank, HCL Tech, Titan, Mahindra & Mahindra and Power Grid were the gainers.

“The market experienced profit-booking after the recent gains, on the back of next week’s US tariff announcements. The sectors with higher exposure to the US market, like pharma & IT, have witnessed some selling pressure,” Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments Limited, said.

Among Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong settled in the positive territory while Shanghai ended lower.

European markets were trading lower. US markets ended higher on Tuesday.

Among BSE sectoral indices, oil & gas dropped the most by 1.52 percent, followed by realty (1.37%), utilities (1.32%), energy (1.29%), bankex (1.08%), Focused IT (1.12%) and IT (1.11%).