Sensex slumps as banking, metal stocks plunge

Mumbai: The Indian stock market opened lower on Friday with heavy selling across the board.

The domestic market declined in line with the Asian stocks over concerns of rising cases of Delta variant of Covid-19 and its impact on the global economic recovery.

The selloff was led by banking and metal stocks.

The BSE Sensex fell as much as 615 points to touch an intraday low of 55,013.98 points. It has, however, recovered from the lows.

At 10.02 a.m., Sensex was trading at 55,323.06, lower by 306.43 points or 0.55 per cent from its previous close of 55,629.49 points.

It opened at 55,159.13 and has so far touched an intraday high of 55,495.60.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange was trading at 16,454.70, lower by 114.15 points or 0.69 per cent from its previous close.

The top gainers on the BSE Sensex were Asian Paints, Hindustan Unilever and Bharti Airtel, while the major losers were Tata Steel, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Dr Reddy's Laboratories.