It was mayhem on Dalal Street as the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) benchmark Sensex crashed by over 600 points on Thursday, this after opening in red earlier in the day.
According to latest BSE data at 12:29 pm, Sensex was 588.71 points down at 70,471, this minutes after it had plunged by over 600 points.
Ten of the 13 major sectors logged losses, with the IT index sliding by 1.5% in the afternoon trade.
“The near-term weakness in IT is likely to persist. It will take at least two to three quarters for revival in client spending and earnings growth in the sector,” Aishvarya Dadheech, founder and chief investment officer at Fident Asset Management, told news agency Reuters.
Financial services, the heaviest weighted among the major sectors, dropped 1%. They have tumbled 6.2% since HDFC Bank reported disappointing margins last week.
In the six sessions since, FIIs have sold Indian shares worth 347.66 billion rupees ($4.18 billion), which has pulled the benchmark Nifty 50 down about 3%.
Domestic institutional investors, however, were net buyers in five of those sessions, purchasing shares worth 181.29 billion rupees, according to exchange data.
Among individual stocks, Nifty 50 constituent Bajaj Auto rose 3.6% after the automaker beat profit expectations, helped by strong domestic demand. Bajaj Auto was the top Nifty 50 gainer.