Sensex tumbles 712 points; banking & financial stocks sink

The Indian stock market's key indices, Sensex and Nifty, slumped by around 1.2 per cent on Monday dragged by heavy selling pressure in banking and financial stocks amid weak global cues.

The 30 stock S&P BSE Sensex was trading 712.28 points or 1.19 per cent down at 58,933.87 points at 1.40 pm against its previous session's close at 59,646.15 points.

Earlier, the Sensex started the day deep in the red at 59,361.08 points and slumped to a low of 58,881.02 points.

This is the second consecutive session of the slump in the key indices. The Sensex had lost 651.85 points or 1.08 per cent on Friday, the previous trading session.

The broader Nifty 50 of the National Stock Exchange was trading 216.10 points or 1.22 per cent down at 17,542.35 points against its previous session's close at 17,758.45 points.

The Nifty 50 had slumped by 198.05 points or 1.10 per cent on Friday.

There was heavy selling pressure in banking and financial stocks. Kotak Bank dipped 2.93 per cent to Rs 1822.35. Axis Bank slumped 2.40 per cent to Rs 740.70. ICICI Bank dipped 2.07 per cent to Rs 852.05. State Bank of India slumped 1.51 per cent to Rs 512.55.

Asian Paints, Tata Steel, L&T, UltraTech Cement, Wipro, Sun Pharma and HDFC were among the major Sensex losers.

Only four of the 30 scrips that are part of the benchmark Sensex were trading in the positive. ITC was trading with a gain of around 1 per cent. Nestle India, Dr Reddy's Laboratories and Hindustan Unilever were also trading in the positive.

( With inputs from ANI )

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