Sensex Falls Over 500 Points, Nifty Below 17,200; Axis Bank, Coal India, Bajaj Auto Biggest Laggards

The Indian equity benchmarks ended lower on Friday led by losses in index heavyweights like Axis Bank, Powergrid, Wipro, and SBI. The Sensex fell as much as 525 points, and the Nifty 50 index fell below 17,200 points. 

At 3:10 pm, Sensex was down 518 points at 57,002, and the Nifty 50 index fell 160 points to end at 17,084 points. 

On Friday, most of the Asian markets were trading higher taking cues from strong closing on Wall Street. Japan's Nikkei rose 1.75 per cent, Taiwan Weighted advanced 1.2 per cent and South Korea's KOSPI rose 0.9 per cent.

Back home, all the 15 sector gauges ended lower with losses from 0.93 per cent to 2.09 per cent. The Nifty Midcap 50 index fell by 1.01 per cent at 8,161, whereas Nifty Midcap 100 index fell by 0.89 per cent at 29,866. 

Amongst the Nifty 50 heavyweights, HDFC Life, Tata Consumer Private Limited, Kotak Bank, Sun Pharma, and HDFC Bank were the top gainers, whereas Axis Bank, Coal India, Adani Ports, Power Grid and Bajaj Auto were the top losers. The shares of Axis Bank tumbled over 5 per cent after the company reported a 49.77 per cent jump in its consolidated net profit for the March quarter on Thursday. The lender had reported a profit of Rs 2,677 crore in the same quarter last year.