The Sensex plummeted 889 points while the Nifty sank below the 17,000-mark on Friday, in line with a selloff in global markets as hawkish central banks and rising Omicron cases sparked a retreat from riskier assets.
Continued selling by foreign institutional investors put further pressure on domestic bourses, traders said.
The 30-share BSE Sensex tumbled 889.40 points or 1.54 per cent to finish at 57,011.74. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty plunged 263.20 points or 1.53 per cent to 16,985.20.
IndusInd Bank was the top laggard on the Sensex chart, shedding 4.89 per cent, followed by Kotak Bank, HUL, Titan, HDFC, Bajaj Finserv and SBI.
In value terms, Reliance Industries and HDFC twins accounted for around half of the benchmark’s losses.
Only five index components managed to close in the green -- Infosys, HCL Tech, PowerGrid, Sun Pharma and TCS, spurting up to 2.84 per cent. “Weak global sentiments inundated domestic indices as markets are digesting the hawkish stance of major international central banks amid surging Omicron cases,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
“While the European Central Bank took a small step in rolling back the crisis-era stimulus although holding down borrowing costs next year, the Bank of England surprised the markets by raising interest rates for the first time since the onset of the pandemic. Continued FII selling created tension among domestic investors. Barring IT, all sectors bled,” he added.
During the week, the Sensex slumped 1,774.93 points or 3.01 per cent and Nifty tanked 526.10 points or 3 per cent. Kurian, Senior EVP and Head- Equity Research, Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company, said emergence of the Omicron coronavirus variant, inflation concerns.