FINAL TRADE | Indices pause two-day rally; Sensex tumbles 617 pts, Nifty slides below 22,350 amid broad-based sell-off

Stock market today: Benchmark indexes Nifty and Sensex slipped into red on Monday, March 11, pausing a two-day rally. The market witnessed a heavy sell-off in almost all the sectors. A drop in HDFC Bank and Tata Group stocks, along with investors being cautious ahead of key domestic and US inflation data due on Tuesday, impacted domestic market sentiment.

Nifty cracked 0.72 per cent, or 160.9 points, to close at 22,332.65, while Sensex shed 0.83 per cent, or 616.75 points, to settle at 73,502.64. Tata Consumer Products, PowerGrid, Bajaj Auto, Tata Steel, and the State Bank of India were among the top losers, down nearly 3-2 per cent. On the other hand, Apollo Hospitals, Nestle India, SBI Life, Cipla, and Dr Reddy's were among the top gainers in the Nifty basket, trading with gains of around 3–1 per cent.

Nifty Bank dropped over 500 points, or 1.06 per cent, to settle at 47,327.85 amid selling in bank stocks. Moreover, the broader, more domestically-focussed Nifty SmallCap 100 lost 2 per cent, while the Nifty MidCap 100 shed 0.39 per cent, respectively underperforming the benchmarks.

"Continued selloff in global markets due to uncertainty over rate cuts impacted the domestic market sentiment, which is currently at an overbought level. The stronger than expected US nonfarm payroll data and caution ahead of the release of US inflation data tomorrow kept investors on the edge. The broader market continued its underperformance due to valuation concerns, while investors are rebalancing their portfolios to include safe haven assets like gold," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services, said.

Investors lost Rs 3.15 lakh crore in wealth as the market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies declined to Rs 3,89,66,349 at the end of trade on Monday from Rs 3,92,81,242.81 on Thursday, March 7, according to provisional exchange data.

Global Market

European shares started the week on a lacklustre note, tracking a sell-off in Asian equities, while cautious traders kept to the sidelines ahead of key US inflation data due this week.
The pan-European STOXX 600 was down 0.4 per cent by 0817 GMT on Monday and on track for its biggest one-day percentage drop in a month if losses hold. Investors awaited Tuesday's US February inflation data, along with the euro zone January industrial production print, due later in the week.

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