Sensex, Nifty see free fall amid soaring inflation, foreign fund exodus

Mumbai: Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty tumbled more than 1 per cent on Wednesday amid retail inflation soaring to a 14-month high of 6.21 per cent in October and unabated foreign fund outflows.

Muted quarterly earnings, selling in frontline stocks -- HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries -- along with weak trends in the US and Asian peers also hit markets' sentiment, traders said.

The BSE benchmark Sensex tanked 984.23 points or 1.25 per cent to settle at 77,690.95, extending its previous day's fall. During the day, it slumped 1,141.88 points or 1.45 per cent to 77,533.30.

Registering its fifth day of decline, the NSE Nifty tumbled 324.40 points or 1.36 per cent to 23,559.05.

From the 30-share Sensex pack, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Steel, Adani Ports, JSW Steel, IndusInd Bank, Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the biggest laggards.

Tata Motors, NTPC, Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints and Infosys were the gainers.

The latest data showed retail inflation breached the Reserve Bank's upper tolerance level, soaring to a 14-month high of 6.21 per cent in October, mainly on account of rising food prices.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 3,024.31 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.

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

European markets were trading higher.

The US markets ended in the negative territory on Tuesday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.93 per cent to USD 72.56 a barrel.

The BSE benchmark tumbled 820.97 points or 1.03 per cent to settle at 78,675.18 on Tuesday. The Nifty tanked 257.85 points or 1.07 per cent to 23,883.45.