Sensex snaps 5-day rally; slumps 709 points

Mumbai: After five days of rally, the Indian equities markets benchmark Sensex slumped 709 points on Tuesday due to heavy selling pressure in metal, energy, IT and banking stocks.

The 30 stock S&P BSE Sensex closed 709.17 points or 1.26 per cent down at 55,776.85 points against its previous day's close at 56,486.02 points. Earlier, the Sensex started the day with a gain of around 200 points at 56,663.87 points. The index witnessed lacklustre session till noon. However, it witnessed heavy selling pressure in the last one hour of trading. The index hit a low of 55,418.95 points in the intra-day.

The Sensex has closed in the negative for the first time in the past six trading sessions. The Sensex had gained 935.72 points or 1.68 per cent on Monday.

The broader Nifty 50 of the National Stock Exchange slumped 208.30 points or 1.23 per cent to 16,663.00 points against its previous day's close at 16,871.30 points. The Nifty had gained 240.85 points or 1.45 per cent on Monday.

Metal, energy, IT and banking stocks witnessed heavy selling pressure. Tata Steel slumped 4.89 per cent to Rs 1233.65.
Kotak Bank tumbled 3.11 per cent to Rs 1733.40. Tech Mahindra fell 2.92 per cent to Rs 1459.05. Infosys slumped 2.73 per cent to Rs 1839.15. HCL Technologies fell 2.15 per cent to Rs 1176.90.

The index heavyweight Reliance Industries fell 2.28 per cent to Rs 2363.45.

Only 10 of the 30 scrips that are part of the benchmark Sensex closed in the positive. Mahindra & Mahindra jumped 2.31 per cent to Rs 760.85. Maruti Suzuki jumped 1.40 per cent to Rs 7417.25. Nestle India, Asian Paints, Titan and Bharti Airtel were among the major Sensex gainers.