Sensex plunges 380 points, auto stock suffer the most

Equity benchmark indices plunged further in the afternoon on Friday with selling pressure across the board amid concerns over growth and earnings recovery.

At 12:50 pm, the BSE S & P Sensex was down 380 points at 38,517 while the Nifty 50 lost 119 points at 11,478.

At the National Stock Exchange, all sectoral indices were in the red. Nifty auto was down 2.16 per cent, realty by 1.8 per cent, financial services by 1.49 per cent and PSU banks by 1.45 per cent.

Among stocks, Bajaj Finance dropped 4.89 per cent to Rs 3,298 per share while Bajaj Finserve slipped 3.88 per cent to Rs 7,543 per share.

Mahindra & Mahindra was down 2.5 per cent, Tata Motors by 2.4 per cent, Eicher Motors by 2.2 per cent and Hero MotoCorp by 2.1 per cent.

Among the other losers were GAIL, IndusInd Bank, Tech Mahindra and UPL.

A day earlier, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) should consider the option of structuring themselves as companies rather than trusts to avoid paying the increased surcharge announced in Union Budget for 2019-20.

FPIs registered as trusts will have to pay the new tax surcharge, Sitharaman said, quashing hopes that the government may tweak relevant portions of the Finance Bill to protect them from the effects of 'super-rich tax.'

Reports say foreign investors have pulled out more than Rs 5,000 crore from the cash segment of Indian equity markets so far in July.