Bears on prowl! Sensex tanks 820 points, Nifty below 24,000

Mumbai: The Indian stock market closed in red on Tuesday as heavy selling was seen in all sectors except IT and realty.

India's main benchmark indices closed down by more than 1 per cent at the end of trading. Sensex fell 820.97 points, or 1.03 per cent, to 78,675.18 and Nifty settled at 23,883.45, down 257.85 points, or 1.07 per cent.

Selling was driven by banking stocks. Nifty Bank fell 718.95 points or 1.39 per cent to 51,157.80. Nifty midcap 100 index closed at 55,257.50 at the end of trading after falling 596.25 points or 1.07 per cent. The Nifty smallcap 100 index closed at 17,991.60 after falling 233.55 points or 1.28 per cent.

Among the sectoral indices, PSE, auto, PSU Bank, financial service, pharma, FMCG, metal, media, energy, private bank, and infra were major losers.

In the Sensex pack, NTPC, HDFC Bank, Asian Paints, SBI, Tata Motors, JSW Steel, Maruti, Power Grid, Bajaj Finance, M&M, Bajaj Finserv, Nestle India, Axis Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the top losers. However, Sun Pharma, Infosys, and ICICI Bank were the top gainers.

On the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), 1,236 shares were trading in green, 2,234 shares in red, and there was no change in 91 shares.

Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst, LKP Securities said: "The Nifty slipped from its recent consolidation on the daily chart, indicating growing pessimism in the market. The index has been holding below key short-term moving averages, specifically the 21-EMA and 50-EMA, further weakening sentiment."

"The daily RSI is declining, accompanied by a bearish crossover. In the short term, the index may move towards the 23,600–23,650 range, while resistance on the higher end is seen at 24,000," De said. He further stated that the rupee traded weaker by 0.01 rupees, closing at 84.40, as FIIs continued their selling spree in the Indian market.

However, the rupee received some relief from falling crude and gold prices, as the reduced pace of decline could potentially improve India's import bill in the coming months.