Sensex plunges 1,371 points; Nifty falls below 22,000-level dragged by bank stocks

Mumbai: Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty plunged in early trade on Wednesday, dragged down by bank stocks and weak trends from Asian markets.

Extending its previous day's decline, the 30-share BSE Sensex plunged 1,371.23 points to 71,757.54 after a weak beginning. The Nifty tanked 395.35 points to 21,636.95.

Among the Sensex firms, HDFC Bank fell nearly 6 per cent after its December quarter earnings.

HDFC Bank on Tuesday reported a 2.65 per cent rise in consolidated net profit of Rs 17,258 crore for the October-December period against Rs 16,811 crore in the preceding September quarter.

Axis Bank, Tata Steel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, and Bajaj Finance were among the other major laggards.

Tata Consultancy Services, Reliance Industries, UltraTech Cement, Infosys, HCL Technologies, and Tech Mahindra were among the gainers.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Shanghai and Hong Kong were trading lower while Tokyo quoted in the green.

The US markets ended in the negative territory on Tuesday.

"Market is likely to turn slightly weak in the near-term, getting impacted by some negative global and domestic cues. The global negativity will come from the rising bond yields in the US (the 10-year yield is at 4.04 per cent) responding to concerns that the sharp rate cuts expected from the Fed this year may not materialise.

"Domestically, even though the economy is doing well and corporate earnings are good, all these positives are in the price and the valuations are elevated warranting a correction," V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said.

Snapping its five-day winning run, the BSE benchmark declined 199.17 points, or 0.27 per cent, to settle at 73,128.77 on Tuesday. The Nifty ended lower by 65.15 points, or 0.29 per cent, at 22,032.30.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.57 per cent to USD 77.84 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 656.57 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.