Sensex falls 642pts from day's high, ends 38pts down; Tata Steel bleeds 12%

CLOSING BELL

Stock market highlights: Equity markets turned sharply lower in the fag-end of the session, erasing gains and ending flat with a negative bias on Monday amid selling in index heavyweights like Tata Steel, HDFC twins, Reliance Industries, and ITC.

The BSE Sensex index, which hit a high of 54,931 on the BSE, fell 642 points from the day's high and ended at 54,289, down 38 points or 0.07 per cent. The NSE Nifty50, on the other hand, closed at 16,215, down 51.5 points or 0.3 per cent. The index hit a high of 16,415 earlier today.

JSW Steel and Tata Steel were the worst hit stocks today as they plunged 13 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively. The sharp knock came after he government levied export duty on 11 iron and steel intermediates and key steel products. The government levied export duty of 15 per cent on almost all the major steel products (including stainless steel). READ MORE

That apart, Divis Labs, Hindalco, ONGC, Ultratech Cement, ITC, Adani Ports, UPl, Grasim, and HDFC Bank were the other laggards, down between 1 per cent and 10 per cent. 

On the upside, Maruti Suzuki, M&M, HUL, L&T, Apollo Hospitals, Asian Paints, and Hero MotoCorp were the gainers, rising in the range of 1.5 per cent to 4 per cent.

In the broader market, the BSE MidCap index slipped 0.16 per cent, while the BSE SmallCap index shed 0.64 per cent. Sectorally, Nifty Metal Index cracked over 8 per cent, while the Nifty Auto added 2 per cent.