Mumbai: Sensex showed slight recovery in the latter part of the day after plummeting over 1,800 points by noon on Monday amid a selloff in global markets as concerns over rising Omicron cases spooked investors.
As the closing bell, the Sensex was down 1,189.73 points or 2.09% at 55,822.01, and the Nifty was down 371.00 points or 2.18% at 16,614.20.
The tumultuous day saw over 600 shares advancing, over 2600 declining while nearly a 100 shares remained unchanged.
Top losers included BPCL, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, IndusInd Bank and SBI.
Healthcare stocks including Cipla, HUL and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories were among the top gainers.
It was all red in the sectoral indices with realty, bank, capital goods and metal falling at least 3 percent.
Persistent foreign fund outflow too weighed on investor sentiment.
In the previous session, the 30-share equity benchmark had ended 889.40 points or 1.54 percent lower at 57,011.74. Similarly, the NSE Nifty had plunged 263.20 points or 1.53 percent to 16,985.20.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital market, as they sold shares worth Rs 2,069.90 crore on Friday, according to stock exchange data.
Rising inflation, hawkish central banks, exploding COVID cases, sustained selling by FIIs and slowing growth momentum in the developed economies combined to produce the perfect storm that spooked the markets last week, said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
"These negative factors persist, causing concerns about further downtrend in the market, particularly if FIIs continue to sell. But negative sentiments are unlikely to last long. Omicron variant, though fast-spreading, has not proved to be highly virulent as feared. Also, FIIs will turn buyers soon when valuations become attractive," he noted.
Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul were trading with heavy losses in mid-session deals as concerns over resurgence of COVID cases battered global sentiment.
Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude fell 2.45 percent to USD 71.72 per barrel.
