Sensex, Nifty Fall For Third Day In A Row; Paytm Crashes on Market Debut

The Indian equity benchmarks declined for third day in a row Thursday dragged by losses in Larsen & Toubro, Tata Consultancy Services, HDFC, HCL Technologies, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Bajaj Finance. The Sensex fell as much as 632 points and Nifty 50 index briefly dropped below its important psychological level of 17,700. The markets however, recovered some of its losses in the afternoon trading on the back of buying interest banking shares.

The Sensex ended 372 points lower at 59,636 and Nifty 50 index declined 134 points to close at 17,765.

"Our research suggests that if the 58,900-59,300 levels may act as an important support for the Sensex. If Sensex sustains above 58,900, we can expect it to trade in the range of 58,900-60,200.

Paytm's shares plunged as much as 27 per cent in a weak stock market debut on Thursday, a week after the country's biggest-ever initial public offering. The stock opened for trading at Rs 1,950 on the NSE, marking a decline of 9.3 per cent or Rs 200 from its issue price of Rs 2,150. Paytm shares extended losses after opening as the stock fell as much as 27 per cent, from issue price, to hit an intraday low of Rs 1,564.

In another stock market debut, shares of Sapphire Foods India, which operates KFC and Pizza Hut made a strong debut at the exchanges on Thursday. The stock got listed at Rs 1,350 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), a premium of 14.41 per cent over its issue price of Rs 1,180. On the BSE platform, the stock started trading at Rs 1,311.

Selling pressure was broad-based as all the 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended lower led by the Nifty Auto index's nearly 3 per cent fall.

Nifty Metal, Media, Information Technology, Pharma, Realty and Healthcare indices also fell between 1.2-2.6 per cent.

Mid- and small-cap shares also faced selling pressure as Nifty Midcap 100 index dropped 1.44 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index plunged 1.63 per cent.

Tata Motors was top Nifty loser, the stock fell 3.8 per cent to close at Rs 510. Mahindra & Mahindra, Tech Mahindra, Larsen & Toubro, HCL Technologies, Eicher Motors, Tata Steel, IndusInd Bank, Hero MotoCorp, Dr Reddy's Labs, Shree Cements, Maruti Suzuki and UPL also fell between 2-3.5 per cent.

On the flipside, State Bank of India, Indian Oil, HDFC Bank, Power Grid, Reliance Industries, Hindustan Unilever and Divi's Labs were among the notable losers.

The overall market breadth was extremely negative as 2,285 shares ended lower while 1,042 closed higher on the BSE.