Indian Market: Sensex drops 1,172.19 points

The Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) too fell 302 points at 17,173.65. 

A number of factors which have unsettled investor's confidence are Global headwinds of likely aggressive rate hikes, rising inflation and spurting Covid-19 cases in parts of the world as well as the Russia-Ukraine conflict. 

The BSE Sensex opened 1,000 points down at 57,338.58. During the day, it lost ground by 1,496 points at 56,842.39, the day's low, before closing at 56,166.74, sliding 1172.19 points from its previous close. The Sensex registered the day's high and low at 57,420.80 and 56,842.39 points respectively. 

The Nifty recorded the day's high and low at 17,237.75 and 17,067.85 respectively. 

Sectoral indices like IT, realty, finance, telecom and bankex dragged the market. IT and realty were worst hit, down more than 4 per cent followed by finance by 2.12 per cent, telecom by 1.77 per cent and bankex by 1.68 per cent.

In scrips, Infosys slipped 1.27 per cent to Rs 1,621.45, a major loser in the 30 scrips of the Bombay Stock Exchange. 

Other losers were HDFC by 4.81 per cent to Rs 2,263.05, HDFC Bank by 4.74 per cent to Rs 1,395.35, Tech Mahindra by 4.69 per cent to Rs 1,344.25 and Wipro by 3.67 per cent to Rs 538.75.

The gainers were NTPC by 6.11 per cent to Rs 163.30, Tata Steel by 1.51 per cent to Rs 1,339.20, Maruti Suzuki by 1.37 per cent to Rs 7,514.55 and Titan by 1.21 per cent to Rs 2,491.40. 

The Mid Cap fell by 0.95 per cent and Small Cap by 1.01 per cent. In 30 scrips, 10 advanced while 20 declined. Asian Markets were seen weak as investors reacting to the release of Chinese economic data, including first-quarter gross domestic product figures. 

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 fell 1.08 per cent. The Topix index shed 0.86 per cent to 1,880.08. In China, Shanghai composite was down 0.49 per cent and the Shenzhen component climbed 0.368 per cent.

(With UNI inputs)