Mumbai: Market benchmark Sensex plummeted by 310 points Wednesday to crack below the 28,000 mark, its biggest single-day fall in nearly seven weeks, on heavy profit-booking in oil&gas, auto and healthcare stocks as investors judged the recent rally was overdone.
Global trend was also muted, with lower closing in Asian markets and subdued opening in Europe amid the dollar weakening against the yen after the US data showed decline in productivity.
Shares of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) surged 7.93 percent after the company reported 31 percent jump in consolidated net profit for the first quarter.
Drug maker Lupin fell close to 4 percent to Rs 1,545.05 on poor first quarter earnings numbers.
Stocks of refinery, energy, auto, healthcare, power, consumer durable, utilities and banking sectors fell sharply on heavy selling pressure.
"Market nosedived as investors believed that the recent rally has outpaced the market valuation, which is trading at a premium to last three years average," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.
He added that bond yields and gold have seen momentum as liquidity is shifting towards safe haven assets.
The BSE Sensex resumed higher at 28,133.36 and hovered in a range of 28,143.28 to 27,736.62 before closing at 27,774.88, showing a fall of 310.28 points or 1.10 percent -- the biggest since the global sell-off on June 24, after the UK voted to leave the European Union.
The NSE Nifty slipped below the 8,600-level by dropping 102.95 points or 1.19 percent to close the day at 8,575.30. Intra-day, it hovered between 8,690.10 and 8,564.60.
Traders said oil prices extending losses in Asian trade after industry data showed a rise in US crude stockpiles, supporting oversupply concerns, too had a negative impact.
Overseas, Asian and European stocks witnessed a mixed trend as investors assessed the timing of the next interest rate hike by the US Federal Reserve.
Key Asian indices like in Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan firmed up by 0.04 percent to 0.50 percent, while China and Japan fell up to 0.23 percent.
Europe was also lower, with indices in France, Germany and the UK down 0.09 percent to 0.22 percent.
Back home, out of the 30-share Sensex, 26 stocks fell, while ONGC ended steady.
Major losers included RIL 2.63 percent, Hero MotoCorp 2.56 percent, ICICI Bank 2.47 percent, M&M 2.21 percent, Maruti 2.04 percent, Tata Motors 2.02 percent, Cipla 1.98 percent, HDFC Bank 1.94 percent, Asian Paints 1.51 percent, Wipro 1.46 percent, Tata Steel 1.41 percent, Sun Pharma 1.38 percent and SBI 1.32 percent.
Among the smart mover were TCS 0.88 percent and Coal India 0.31 percent.
Among BSE sectoral indices, oil&gas tumbled 2.19 percent followed by energy 2.04 percent, auto 1.93 percent, healthcare 1.70 percent, power 1.56 percent, consumer durables 1.55 percent, utilities 1.42 percent, bankex 1.36 percent and telecom 1.31 percent.
Broader markets were also lower with BSE small-cap index ending 1.18 percent down while the mid-cap shedding 1.06 percent.
The market breadth remained negative as 1,895 stocks closed in the red, while 835 stocks finished in green and 135 ruled steady.
The total turnover fell to Rs 3,320.99 crore from Rs 3,531.69 crs yesterday.
