Sensex Drops 728 Points on Profit-Taking in IT, Banking

Mumbai, Mar 26 (PTI) Benchmark stock indices Sensex and Nifty halted their seven-day winning run and closed down by nearly 1 per cent on Wednesday due to profit-taking in banking and IT shares.

The 30-share BSE Sensex tanked 728.69 points or 0.93 per cent to settle at 77,288.50. During the day, it slumped 822.97 points or 1.05 per cent to 77,194.22.

The NSE Nifty dropped 181.80 points or 0.77 per cent to 23,486.85.

In the past seven trading days, the BSE benchmark index jumped 4,188.28 points or 5.67 per cent. The Nifty surged 1,271.45 points or 5.67 per cent during the same period.

From the Sensex pack, NTPC, Tech Mahindra, Zomato, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance, Infosys, Maruti, State Bank of India, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Reliance Industries, Hindustan Unilever, and HDFC Bank were the losers.

IndusInd Bank, HCL Tech, Titan, Mahindra & Mahindra and Power Grid were the gainers.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong settled in the positive territory while Shanghai ended lower.

European markets were trading lower. US markets ended higher on Tuesday.

"The market experienced profit-booking after the recent gains, on the back of next week's US tariff announcements. The sectors with higher exposure to the US market, like pharma & IT, have witnessed some selling pressure," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments Limited, said.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 5,371.57 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.58 per cent to USD 73.44 a barrel.

The BSE benchmark gained 32.81 points or 0.04 per cent to settle at 78,017.19 on Tuesday. The Nifty eked out gains of 10.30 points or 0.04 per cent to 23,668.65.