Mumbai, Oct. 1 (PTI): Equity benchmarks languished for the third straight session on Tuesday as financial sector woes, auto sales slump and weak macro data triggered an across-the-board sell-off.
The 30-share BSE Sensex, which opened on a firm footing, crashed over 737 points in late afternoon trade, before finally recouping some losses to finish at 38,305.41, down 361.92 points or 0.94 per cent.
The broader Nifty too underwent bouts of volatility and closed lower by 114.55 points, or 1 per cent, at 11,359.90.
The Sensex has now lost 684.33 points, or 1.76 per cent, in three sessions, while the Nifty has dropped 211.30 points, or 1.83 per cent.
Analysts said caution prevails among investors amid a deepening crisis at Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank (PMC) and fraud allegations against companies like Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd (IHFL).
Yes Bank shares plummeted over 22 per cent, their fifth consecutive session of fall, as promoter Rana Kapoor and his group entities sold another 2.16 per cent stake worth INR 510 crore.
Other major laggards were IndusInd Bank, SBI, Bharti Airtel, ONGC, Tata Steel and Reliance Industries -- falling as much as 6.30 per cent.
Among the Sensex constituents, HDFC twins, Mahindra and Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki, Kotak Bank, HUL and Asian Paints ended in the green.
"Contraction in core sector and concern on government's plan to stick with original fiscal target of 3.3 per cent in spite of huge cut in tax raised concern over spending.
"Investors are not expecting a meaningful recovery in festival season due to continued weakness in auto sales. Volatility in banks and fall in rupee also influenced profit booking tendency in the market," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.
The country's manufacturing sector activity remained unchanged in September amid subdued demand conditions both domestically as well as externally, a monthly survey said on Tuesday.
The IHS Markit India Manufacturing PMI was at 51.4 in September, unchanged from August and thereby posting its joint-lowest reading since May 2018.
Official data released after market hours on Monday showed that the output of eight core infrastructure industries fell 0.5 per cent in August.
The broader BSE smallcap, midcap and largecap indices underperformed the benchmark, losing up to 1.61 per cent.
Sectorally, telecom dropped 4.53 per cent, followed by realty 3.88 per cent, tech 2.20 per cent and IT 1.68 per cent.
Of the 19 sectoral gauges compiled by the BSE, 17 closed in the red.
Investors are wary about governance issues in the country's banking sector and its exposure to the stressed real estate industry, analysts said.
The Mumbai Police on Monday filed a case against the former bank management and promoters of HDIL in the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank case and said a special investigation team will be probing the case.
Meanwhile, in a tweet on Tuesday, the RBI said, "There are rumours in some locations about certain banks including cooperative banks, resulting in anxiety among the depositors. RBI would like to assure the general public that Indian banking system is safe and stable and there is no need to panic on the basis of such rumours."
In further worries for the auto sector and the economy as a whole, automobile sales have witnesses a sharp decline again in September.
Sales of Maruti Suzuki, Toyota Kirloskar, Bajaj Auto, Ashok Leyland and Mahindra and Mahindra have shown a significant decline during the month.
On the currency front, the rupee dropped 22 paise to 71.09 against the US dollar (intra-day).
Global crude benchmark Brent Futures rose 0.51 per cent to USD 59.55 a barrel.
Asian stocks closed mostly higher on Tuesday. Markets in China and Hong Kong were closed for holidays.
Global investors are hoping that the US and China can find some common ground and reach a deal on trade and other issues during their high-level meet next week in Washington.
