The 30-share Sensex plunged by over 600 points on Thursday hours after early gains. The BSE Sensex had dropped by 610 points and was trading at 65,508 when the markets closed. At the BSE, Hindustan Oil Exploration Co. Ltd was the biggest gainer with shares up by 9.98 per cent. The other gainers included MCX (+8.38%), MapMyIndia (+7.15%), Syrma (+7.25 %) and Fincables (+7.67%)Tech Mahindra was the biggest loser in the Sensex pack, slipping 4.59 per cent, followed by Asian Paints, Wipro, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Infosys, ITC, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hindustan Unilever, IndusInd Bank, Reliance Industries and JSW Steel.The markets had begun on a positive note on Thursday, but later gave up the gains to trade lower amid muted global trends. The Sensex had climbed 287.32 points to 66,406.01 in early deals. The Nifty advanced 50.2 points to 19,766.65.
But both the benchmark indices failed to carry forward the winning momentum and traded in the negative territory later. The 30-share BSE benchmark traded 64.71 points lower at 66,053.98 and the Nifty quoted 14.20 points down at 19,702.25.”The selling was broad-based, as investors are on alert given the rise of oil prices. If crude continues to stay above the USD 90 level, it will be a threat to inflation and boil the operational margins. Currently, the combination of higher interest rates and US bond yields are influencing FIIs to stay in the selling mode,” Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, told PTI.The BSE benchmark had climbed 173.22 points or 0.26 per cent to settle at 66,118.69 on Wednesday. The Nifty gained 51.75 points or 0.26 per cent to end at 19,716.45.