Final Trade: Sensex down 645 pts, Nifty closes at 24,610 as bears take charge of D-Street

Thursday was not a good session on Dalal Street, as benchmark indices closed sharply lower as selling pressure stepped up due to weak global cues. The S&P BSE Sensex plunged 644.64 points to settle at 80,951.99, while the NSE Nifty50 slipped 203.75 points to end the day at 24,609.70.

Despite a strong session on Wednesday, bears owned this trading session for most of the time, as plenty of stocks in important sectors underwent profit booking after good runs recently. Global weakness kept investors cautious along with the upcoming earnings and macro data.

Top gainers and losers

IndusInd Bank was the only gainers that mattered, with a surge of 1.82 per cent. Two-wheeler stocks created some strong buying as they pushed Bharti Airtel into the second position with a 0.44 per cent gain, while UltraTech Cement pushed up 0.10 per cent.

Nevertheless, on a broader market basis, the trend was bearish; Mahindra & Mahindra was the biggest loser with a decline of 2.27 per cent. Bajaj Finserv followed with a drop of 1.80 per cent, while Tech Mahindra and Power Grid Corporation lost 1.77 per cent and 1.74 per cent, respectively. FMCG giant ITC fell 1.58 per cent.

Other losers worthy of mention were HCL Tech, Infosys, and Reliance Industries, and the rest of the losers put some weight on the indices.

Broader market and sectoral trend

Selling was observed across all sectors. The IT sector, the auto sector, and the FMCG sector were the biggest losers. Analysts mention a global risk-off.