FINAL TRADE: Nifty cracks below 22,500, falls for 5th day, Sensex slumps 617 pts

Stock market today: Benchmark equity indices plunged on Thursday, May 30 amid selling pressure ahead of the final phase of Lok Sabha elections, in line with weak global trends. The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 73,885.6, down 617.3 points or 0.83 per cent while NSE Nifty 50 settled 216.05 points or 0.95 per cent lower to settle at 22,488.65. 

Among the Nifty companies, 40 stocks were declining while 10 stocks were advancing. Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra, Grasim, Bajaj Finserv, and Wipro were among the top decliners in the Nifty 50 universe while ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, and Bharti Airtel led the gains.

"The benchmark index is taking cues from the US market as treasury yields continue to climb following the stickiness of global inflation, delaying the central bank’s interest rates cut policy," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services said.

"Meanwhile, the broader market continued the weak trend, led by profit booking, due to feeble closing of monthly expiry owing to lack of interest to hold short-term positions, as exit poll is slated in the weekend," he added. 

The high-beta Nifty Bank index, whose 12 constituents include SBI, HDFC Bank, and ICICI Bank finished 0.37 per cent or 181 points higher at 48,682.35. Meanwhile, the domestically focussed Nifty SmallCap100 and Nifty MidCap100 cracked 1.62 per cent and 1.34 per cent, respectively.

Among individual stocks, shares of Tata Steel fell 5.19 per cent at Rs 165.2 after it reported its fourth-quarter report, dragging Nifty metal down 3.01 per cent.

Edelweiss Financial Services shares lost 11.62 per cent to close at Rs 68.45 on Thursday after the Reserve Bank imposed business restrictions on Edelweiss Group's lending and asset reconstruction arms on concerns over the evergreening of loans.

The last phase of polling is scheduled for June 1. The results of the ongoing general elections will be declared on June 4.

Global Market

Shares opened higher in Europe on Thursday after a retreat in Asia as rising bond yields weighed on stock prices. Last seen, the pan-European STOXX 600 index was up 0.34 per cent.

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