Sensex dives 471 points, metal stocks drag

Equity benchmark indices ended nearly one per cent lower on Wednesday tracking weak trends in Asian markets amid inflation fears globally.

At the closing bell, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 471 points or 0.96 per cent lower at 48,691 while the Nifty 50 slipped by 154 points or 1.04 per cent to 14,697.

Sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were mixed with Nifty metal cracking by 2.9 per cent. Nifty financial service dropped by 1.2 per cent, private bank by 1.6 per cent and IT by 0.9 per cent. But Nifty PSU bank bucked the trend and rose by 3.2 per cent.

Among stocks, Tata Steel fell by 4.7 per cent to close at Rs 1,175 per share while Hindalco dropped by 3.4 per cent and JSW Steel by 3.4 per cent.

IndusInd Bank and ICICI Bank also traded lower by 3.4 per cent and 2.4 per cent respectively. The other prominent losers were Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Hindustan Unilver, SBI Life, Grasim and ONGC.

However, Tata Motors accelerated by 3.2 per cent at Rs 325.55 per share while Maruti Suzuki was up by 1.3 per cent at Rs 6,825. The other prominent gainers were Power Grid Corporation, NTPC, State Bank of India, Cipla, Britannia and Larsen & Toubro.

Meanwhile, an extended sell-off drove Asian shares to their lowest in seven weeks as surging commodity prices and growing inflationary pressure in the United States prompted markets to bet on earlier rate hikes.

Japan's Nikkei reversed early gains to be down 1.61 per cent. South Korea's Kospi index skidded 1.49 per cent but Hong Kong shares closed 0.78 per cent higher on bargain hunting in tech shares.

( With inputs from ANI )