FINAL TRADE: Across-the-board sell-off drags Nifty below 24,500, Sensex plunges 931 pts

Indian equities in a choppy trade amid across-the-board sell-off ended sharply lower in Tuesday's session (October 22). At the close, Nifty tumbled 309 points or 1.25 per cent and settled at 24,472.10, while the BSE Sensex ended 1.15 per cent or 930.55 points lower at 80,220.72.

Broader markets continued to witness sharp selling pressure, with the Nifty Smallcap 100 index down ending nearly 4 per cent lower, while Nifty Midcap 100 traded settled with a cut of 2.5 per cent.

Bank Nifty traded 0.75 per cent lower, led by losses in index heavyweights including SBI, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Bank of Baroda among others.

From the Nifty pack, top gainers included stocks like ICICI Bank, Nestle, Infosys and Bharti Airtel, while laggards have been M&M, Bharat Electronics, Adani Enterprises, Coal India and Tata Steel.

Sectorally, PSU Bank, Metal, Realty indices bore the most brunt and settled 3-4 per cent lower, while other indices namely Oil & Gas, Consumer Durables, media and auto saw cuts of over 2 per cent.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services said, "Bearish sentiment continued to dominate the domestic market today amid heightened volatility, with small and midcap stocks taking the biggest hit. The recent sharp rise in US bond yields signals diminished expectations for aggressive rate cuts by the US Fed, also affecting fund flows to EMs.

In the short term, this bearish outlook may persist due to sluggish earnings growth trends, added Nair.

Paytm shares fell sharply and traded with a cut of over 3 per cent at Rs 701 even as the company turned profitable during the September quarter on the back of one-time exceptional gains.

Shares of the country's biggest IPO by size-Hyundai Motor India after a weak listing ended over 7 per cent lower at Rs 1,819.6 per share.

European markets, meanwhile, after an initial mixed trade, slipped today as investors navigated global interest rate cut uncertainties as well as geopolitical crisis. French CAC index, at the last count, traded with the most cut of 0.7 per cent.

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