Sensex slumps 664 points from day's high, closes 49 points down

Mumbai: The Indian stock market's benchmark Sensex slumped 664 points from its day's high on Friday and closed in the red dragged by heavy selling pressure in infra, power and banking stocks.

The 30 stock S&P BSE Sensex closed 48.88 points or 0.09 per cent down at 55,769.23 points against its previous day's close at 55,818.11 points. Earlier, the Sensex opened in the positive at 56,245.60 points and surged to a high of 56,432.65 points.

The markets witnessed selling pressure towards the end of the trading session. The Sensex slipped to a low of 55,719.36 points in the intra-day.

The Sensex had gained 436.94 points or 0.79 per cent on Thursday.

The broader Nifty 50 of the National Stock Exchange closed 43.70 points or 0.26 per cent down at 16,584.30 points against its previous day's close at 16,628 points.

The Nifty 50 had gained 105.25 points or 0.64 per cent on Thursday.

UltraTech Cement slumped 5.49 per cent to Rs 5677.40 a day after the company announced Rs 12,886 crore capital expenditure plan.

UltraTech Cement's Board of Directors at its meeting held on Thursday approved a proposal to invest Rs 12,886 crore to increase its production capacity by 22.6 million tonnes per annum (MTPA). UltraTech Cement is the third-largest cement producer in the world, outside of China, with a consolidated grey cement capacity of 119.95 MTPA.

Maruti Suzuki slumped 2.71 per cent to Rs 7709.85. NTPC dipped 2.51 per cent to Rs 155.05.

Banking stocks witnessed heavy selling pressure. Axis Bank dipped 2.18 per cent to Rs 676.50. IndusInd Bank fell 1.97 per cent to Rs 924.70. State Bank of India slumped 1.16 per cent to Rs 464.30. ICICI Bank closed 0.85 per cent down at Rs 743.60.

The index heavyweight Reliance Industries Limited rallied for the second day. RIL surged 2.02 per cent to Rs 2779.50. The scrip had gained 3.51 per cent on Thursday.

There was good buying support in IT stocks. Infosys jumped 0.94 per cent to Rs 1522. The country's largest telecom service provider TCS closed 0.46 per cent higher at Rs 3438.80.

L&T, Sun Pharma, Wipro, Hindustan Unilever, HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra and Dr Reddy's Laboratories were among the major Sensex gainers.