Sensex, Nifty plunge in early trade; Paytm, Gujarat Gas & RCF down up to 9%

Indian equity benchmarks traded lower in Wednesday's early trade, dragged by banks, financials, IT and pharma stocks. The 30-share BSE Sensex slumped 577 points or 0.81 per cent to trade at 70,978 and the NSE Nifty was down 159 points or 0.73 per cent to trade at 21,585. Broader markets (mid- and small-cap shares) were also weak as Nifty Midcap 100 slipped 1.10 per cent and small-cap shed 0.42 per cent.

BSE 500 stocks such as Paytm, Gujarat Gas, RCF, La Opala, Prestige Estates, MMTC, RHIM, LTTS and Fortis cracked up to 8.82 per cent. In contrast, KIOCL, Elgi, NBCC, SJVN, Nesco, National Aluminium and Solar Industries jumped up to 5.22 per cent.

On the global front, Asian markets opened lower. Overnight, Wall Street equities declined after data showed US inflation slowed less than expected in January, hurting market expectations of an early Federal Reserve rate cut.

Back home, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought Rs 376.32 crore worth of shares on a net basis during the previous session and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased Rs 273.94 crore worth of shares, exchange data showed.

All the 15 sector gauges -- compiled by the NSE -- were trading in the red. Sub-indexes Nifty Bank, Nifty Financial Services, Nifty IT and Nifty Pharma were underperforming the NSE platform by falling as much as 1.29 per cent, 1.16 per cent, 2.09 per cent and 1.21 per cent, respectively.

On the stock-specific front, Infosys was the top loser in the Nifty pack as the stock cracked 2.46 per cent to trade at Rs 1,643.1. Wipro, Tech Mahindra, HDFC Bank and LTI Mindtree fell up to 2.45 per cent.

In contrast, Adani Enterprises, BPCL, Apollo Hospitals, M&M and Axis Bank were among the top gainers.

The overall market breadth was weak as 1,766 shares were declining while 1,190 were advancing on BSE.

On the 30-share BSE index, frontline stocks such as HDFC Bank, Infosys, TCS, L&T, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HCL Tech and Sun Pharma were among the top laggards.

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