Markets shaky on GST jitters; Nifty tanks 78 pts

Markets turned extremely turbulent following across the board selling today amid widespread unrest in global equities, while investors awaited the GST Bill debate outcome in the Rajya Sabha.
Marking its fourth straight slide, the benchmark Nifty tumbled 78 points, its biggest single-day fall in one month, to end at 8,544.85.
The selling was indiscriminate, with all major indices posting severe losses on a chaotic day.
A massive slide in Asian and European markets triggered by concerns over global economic outlook also dampened sentiment. Data released at the end of last week showed US growth in the second quarter was softer than expected.

Though the bourses opened modestly higher, they retreated swiftly and fell into deep red amid bouts of profit taking ahead of the voting on the GST Bill introduced for discussion in the Rajya Sabha.
The bill was passed by the Lok Sabha in 2015 but failed to make a headway in the upper house.

The 50-share Nifty opened a tad higher at 8,635.20 and hovered between 8,635.45 and 8,529.60 before finishing at 8,544.85, showing a steep fall of 78.05 points, or 0.91 per cent, suffering its largest decline since June 24 this year.
On the sectoral front, FMCG suffered the most, losing 2.45 per cent. It was followed by Auto (1.77 per cent), Realty (1.44 per cent), Media (1.14 per cent), Energy (1.41 percent), Infra (1.31 per cent), PSU Bank (0.72 per cent), Nifty Bank (0.57 per cent) and Pharma (0.13 per cent).

The midcap and smallcap indices too slumped 1.67 per cent and 1.36 per cent, respectively.
However, technology largely withstood the carnage led by IT major HCL Tech, which posted stellar numbers for the June quarter.
Major index laggards included ITC, Tata Motors, HDFC, Reliance, TCS, L&T, ICICI Bank, Maruti, Eicher Motors, HUL, IndusInd Bank, Aurobindo Pharma, Power Grid, Zee, HDFC Bank, M&M, Lupin, ONGC, SBI, Bajaj Auto, BHEL and Dr Reddy's.
The key outperformers were Bharti Infratel, HCL Tech, Sun Pharma, Asian Paints, Bosch, Cipla and Yes Bank.
Turnover in cash segment declined to Rs 21,220.59 crore as compared to Rs 23,091.42 crore yesterday.

A total of 10,013.34 lakh shares changed hands in 81,84,854 trades. The market capitalisation of NSE stood at Rs 105,40,640 crore.