Sensex falls over 250 pts, Nifty tests 5K on global turmoil

The BSE Sensex dropped more than 1% on Monday, as global risk assets sold off after elections in Greece and France fuelled questions on their austerity policies.

The weaker rupee and uncertainty in a day when the Finance Bill containing the controversial provisions is set to be introduced to the parliament also weighed.

The Asian markets were down today morning. Hang Seng, Taiwan Weighted and Nikkei tanked 2.5% while Straits Times and Kospi were down 1.8%.

The BSE benchmark was down 283 points or 1.68% to 16,548 and the NSE benchmark slipped 89 points or 1.75% to 4,997.75.

JP Associates crashed 6% after the Himachal Pradesh High Court has put a fine of Rs 1 billion and ordered not to set-up 62MW CPP.

Banks stocks took big knock today, with the Bank Nifty falling over 2.5%. State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Bank of Baroda were down over 3%.

Reliance Infrastructure, L&T, Hindalco, BHEL, Tata Steel, Reliance Industries, IDFC, Infosys and DLF dropped 2-3%.

Even FMCG (defensive sector) stocks like HUL and ITC declined 0.5% each.

However, Cipla and ONGC outperformed other largecaps.

Oil marketing companies like HPCL, IOC and BPCL gained 0.5-1.5% as crude fell 4% yesterday.

The CNX Midcap was down 124 points or 1.7% to 7,091. About six shares declined for every share gaining on the National Stock Exchange.

In the second line shares, Allahabad Bank was down over 8%. Syndicate Bank, UCO Bank, Bank of Maharashtra and United Bank of India slipped 4-7%.  

HDIL, Delta Corp, Unitech , IRB Infra, TTK Prestige, VIP and Educomp Solutions too tanked 4-8%.