Sensex Crashes Nearly 504 Points As Banking Stocks Drag Markets, Know- What Triggered The Sudden Sell-Off On Dalal Street?

Mumbai: Indian stock markets continued their downward slide on Tuesday, with the Sensex dropping 503.63 points to close at 85,138.27. The index fell nearly 589 points intraday, extending its losing streak to three sessions. This came just a day after the benchmark touched a record high during morning trade before profit booking pulled it down. The Nifty also declined, losing 143.55 points to end at 26,032.20, weighed down by weakness in heavyweights across banking, capital goods, and energy sectors. Banking Stocks and Reliance Lead Declines Major Sensex laggards included Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, Bharat Electronics, and Larsen & Toubro. Persistent selling in blue-chip financial names put significant pressure on both benchmarks. Meanwhile, Asian Paints, Maruti Suzuki, Bharti Airtel, and Bajaj Finance managed to post gains, limiting deeper market losses. Technical View: Market Weakness Could Deepen Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research at Kotak Securities, said the market continues to see profit booking at higher levels, with both Sensex and Nifty ending sharply lower. He highlighted that selective buying was visible in auto and paint stocks, while the capital market index dropped over 1 percent. On the technical front, he noted that after a gap-down start, the market faced continuous selling pressure. Intraday charts show a lower top, and the daily chart displays a bearish candle, signalling caution. According to him, the market remains weak intraday. A deeper selloff may occur only if Nifty slips below 26,000 and Sensex below 85,000, If these levels hold, markets may rebound toward Nifty 26,100–26,175 and Sensex 85,500–85,800, But if they break, the indices may fall further to Nifty 25,850–25,800 and Sensex 84,500–84,300. Foreign Outflows Add Pressure Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) sold equities worth Rs 1,171.31 crore on Monday, continuing their recent selling trend. Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs), however, bought Rs 2,558.93 crore worth of shares, providing some cushion to the market. Global Markets Mixed; Crude Slips Slightly Asian markets were mixed—China closed lower, while Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong posted gains. European markets traded positive, though US markets ended lower overnight. Brent crude prices softened slightly by 0.33 percent to USD 62.96 per barrel, offering mild relief on the inflation front.